A Different Rose
by JeallyBeanz
Summary: But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone she shall rise. So you may prepare your guardians, build your monuments to a so-called "free world", but take heed... there will be no victory in strength. Because She who marches forward with the will-o-the-wisp will continue her never ending March. Even if her eyes are burnt... even if her arm
1. Chapter One

_Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts, of a forgotten past._

 _Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness — creatures of destruction — the creatures of Grimm - set their sights on man and all of his creations. These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence to the void._

 _However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named "Dust"._

 _Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life._

 _But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone she shall rise._

 _So you may prepare your guardians, build your monuments to a so-called "free world", but take heed... there will be no victory in strength._

 _Because She who marches forward with the will-o-the-wisp will continue her never ending March. Even if her eyes are burnt... even if her arms are ripped off... she will not stop her march... While being guided by the will-o-the-wisp... she is determined to get into point blank range without regard to self protection. the sound of footsteps that abounds her life... the trigger that brings death... The trigger that brings freedom. She will follow the lead of the will-o-the-wisp, because one can never deny the will of the will-o-the-wisp._

 _But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten. Things that require a smaller, more honest soul._

Roman Torchwick. A man most known for he masterful escapes and heists. A wanted criminal with hair that looks orange. He wears a fancy white coat topped with a bowler hat, not to forget the cane that he keeps for aesthetics.

The criminal flicks his cigar as he enters the dust shop, henchmen with tailored black suits with red tinted sunglasses; following behind him. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" Roman's smooth voice sounds through the mostly empty shop before placing the cigar back to his lips.

One of the henchmen points a gun to the shopkeeper who raises his hands in surrender. "P-Please. Just take my lien and leave."

Roman leans forward, a smirk ever present on his face. "Shh shh shh shh. Calm down, we're not here for your money." Roman turns to the henchmen, his voice losing the smooth quality and becoming harsh. "Grab the dust."

Each of them nod while one opens a case, passes out odd looking cylinders to everyone. Each person goes up to a dispenser that lines the walls and begin to fill the containers with dust.

One of the henchmen remain behind with Roman, placing a special looking briefcase on the counter. "Crystals. Burn. Uncut."

 _Dust. By definition, it is a naturally occurring energy propellant that can be triggered by the Aura of Humans and Faunus. But in reality, it is much, much more._

 _Found in four basic forms, Dust can be combined both artificially and naturally to form new, stronger types, each with unique properties. Since its discovery, man has concocted a multitude of ways in which to harness these mysterious crystals._

 _From airships to androids, Dust has made its way into practically every facet of technology. Some prefer to use Dust in its raw form: elegant, yet destructive. Those who choose to wield Dust in this state must possess a certain level of discipline, to ensure that their resulting powers do not break free from their control._

 _Dust ammunition serves as a more practical application in today's modern society. With the technological advancements in weapon design, warriors need merely choose the right cartridge for the job and pull the trigger._

 _While this has become the standard method of use, it is not uncommon to find individuals still practicing more archaic forms of Dust manipulation, such as weaving it into clothing or even fusing it directly with their own bodies._

 _Despite working, fighting, and even turning a profit with it, humanity has still yet to understand how Dust came to be, and more importantly, how their involvement with Dust will ultimately change the world of Remnant._

The shopkeeper begins to grab red dust crystals and place them into the briefcase as yet another henchmen walks by to collect more of the powdered form of dust.

The muted sounds of music reach his ears and turning, he spots a small person in the corner of the store by the weapons magazines. A red cloak hides most of their appearance, only allowing the henchman to see a pair of red headphones on the person's head. Pointing his sword at the girl, he begins to walk forward. "Alright kid, put your hands where I can see 'em." When he doesn't get a response, he grows a little irritated. "Hey, I said hands in the air! You got a death wish or something!?" He puts a hand on her shoulder to spin her around.

The reaction is instantaneous from Ruby Rose. Before the man can speak, he finds himself sailing through the air after being kicked powerfully by the girl. Fully, he feels glass shatter around him before pavement meets his face.

Ruby follows the strange man through the window, pulling a red and black box from her waist. She twirls it around her body, the henchmen watching in slight fear as it extends to become a deadly looking scythe. Crescent Rose. A sniper and scythe hybrid weapon.

 _Not many know just how cruel a scythe can truly be. Holding a sword can be seen as holding a best friend. Bows are a little stingy until you get to know them. And spears are just kind until angered by an enemy. But a scythe is just cruel. With the blade pointing at the wielder, it has little care as to who is enemy and who is foe. A scythe is a bringer of death cloaked in darkness, killing without discrimination._

Roman scowls as both he and his henchmen exit the dust shop, Ruby planting the tip of the blade into the ground as she smirks maliciously. Roman looks to his men and sighs. "Well... Get her."

The henchmen run at Ruby, who spins around on top of her scythe and kicks the first approaching criminal in the face. She gets Crescent Rose out of the ground and fires it off to hit another one with the butt of her weapon, sending him flying. She fires again and brings the side down on one attacker and dodges the next's gunfire with her rifle's speed, getting close enough to knock him into the air and follow him upwards so she can beat him away to Roman's feet.

Roman looks to the men at his feet. "You were worth every cent. Truly, you were." Roman looks to the young girl in front of him. He drops the cigar and crushes it under the end of the cane. "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around..." Roman lifts the cane and points it towards Ruby, the bottom popping up to show a scope with a crosshair grid. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways."

A red blast is aimed towards Ruby who quickly jumps into the air before landing on the cracked concrete. Glancing around, she fins no sign of Roman before she spots him climbing up the ladder of a nearby building.

Roman makes its to the top of the roof and grins cockily, the escape going as planned.

Ruby goes high flying and lands on the roof in a crouch. "Hey!"

Roman stops at the edge and sighs. "Persistent."

Ruby prepares to fight him until an airship rises from the other side of the building. One that Ruby recognises as a bullhead.

The hatch opens and Roman steps inside. He turns around and holds up a red dust crystal. "End of the line red!" He throws the crystal at her feet before firing another shot, causing an explosion of fire to emit from the crystal.

Roman bursts out into laughter before quickly stopping as movement is seen on the roof below. "Huh?"

A woman in a purple cape stands in front of Ruby, casting a circle of protective around the two with her wand. Ruby watches in awe as this new woman, better known as Glynda Goodwitch, waves her wand and summons several streaks of purple to attack the aircraft.

Roman is thrown around in the back until he goes to the cockpit, where a woman in red, her face unseen, is struggling with the controls. "We've got a huntress!"

The woman gets up and heads toward the back as Roman takes the controls.

Glynda glows purple for a moment and aims another blast above the craft, resulting in a dark storm-cloud right over the jet.

With a flick of her wand, large jagged hail starts falling that pummels the jet and even breaks through the window, narrowly missing Roman's head.

The woman reaches the back and her arms and chest light up like fire, aiming a burst of energy at Glynda. The purple caped woman blocks it, but the flame splatters behind her and glows hot with the enemy's raised hand. Glynda back-flips out of the explosion, which destroys part of the roof, and magically gathers the shards to create a large arrow, which she throws at the craft. The fiery woman shatters the arrow with several blasts, but it reforms just in time to hit the side of the jet due to Roman's quick aerial lean. The wreckage separates and reshapes into more arrows that encircle the jet, but the woman summons several glowing rings around herself that expand and destroy the shards.

Ruby, finally acting, reverts her scythe into its rifle form to fire at the woman, who blocks each shot and creates several blazing circles around her two opponents. Glynda telekinetically pushes Ruby and rolls herself out of the explosions radius; looking up to see the hatch close and the craft fly away.

Ruby looks to Glynda and sighs internally. One thought passes through her mind. Civillian persona Ruby. Ruby's eyes grow wide and fake excitement seems to course through her. "You're a huntress! Can I have your autograph?"


	2. Authors Notes

It was brought to my attention that my first post of A Different Rose went a little weird, I will fix that ASAP and post the next chapter. Fair warning to all, the first few chapters are bit of a review before team RWBY comes into effect. A lesson to be learned here? Yes. Don't post chapters via mobile!


	3. Chapter Two

_Huntsmen are widely regarded as the world's greatest warriors. While skilled in a wide variety of weaponry and hand-to-hand combat, these champions are also masters of a much greater power: Aura._

 _Aura is a manifestation of the soul, a life force that runs through every living creature on Remnant, whether they are a meager shopkeep or a renowned knight. However, what sets true warriors apart from all others is their ability to amplify and control their Aura._

 _Aura is primarily used as a defensive mechanism. Passively coating the wielder in a protective force field, it can protect a combatant from what would normally be a fatal blow. It does not, however, make the user invincible. As they receive more and more damage, their Aura reserve will deplete. If this happens, all the fighter will be left with is his resolve. Fortunately, when a fight turns gruesome, a warrior can also rely on their Aura in a different manner._

 _"Semblance" is a term used to describe the projection of Aura into a more tangible form. For some this could be the ability to control objects with telekinesis. For others it could mean superhuman strength. The power associated with a wielder's Semblance is completely unique. With enough training and focus, a user's Aura can turn them into something much more than just a man._

 ** _I remember the days before man was born. When only the Grimm and the beasts roamed the surface of the world. I was not yet born, having been stuck in spawning pool, only able to hear my kin for centuries._**

 ** _I knew the pool was growing weaker as it tried to form me. Yet I doubted I would be able to roam the forests and deserts, I doubted I would ever sink my claws into the dirt of the earth. For my spawning pool had born beasts of greatness, but it has not spawned any for a millennial._**

 ** _Yet I emerged, ending the spawn pool of my birth as I crawled from the inky depths. By now humans had started to grow and conquer our territory._**

 ** _It was such an odd sight. These humans had no claws of their own. No poison or venom. Their paws were torn up by the earth and their hides scratched by the forests._**

 ** _Many of my brothers did not see what they were doing until it was too late._**

 ** _The humans created their own claws and killed us. They hunted the beasts and took their hides as their own. No longer were these pink skinned things lesser, if anything they were seen as greater than Grimm._**

 ** _But humans were faulty. They stared wars and conflicts with each other, over appearances and race._**

 ** _Unlike the Grimm who saw each and everyone one of themselves as kin. Whether some be thy be larger in size or smaller, whether they have more spikes or not. All that mattered was each of us were destroyers of mankind._**

 ** _Only few were smart and intelligent, such as I. Many of us having been stuck in our dying spawn pool for such a long time. That instead of wanting to simply to destroy mankind, we wanted to be rid of it. So we learned._**

 ** _Despite my small size as a Beowulf, I became an alpha. Leading at the head of my pack to destroy small settlements scattered across the fields and plains._**

 ** _Then one of us shed their armor and fur, taking on a form to that of a human Faunus. We watched how it easily infiltrated a human settlement and quickly brought it to ruin._**

 ** _It's skin was as tough as it's bone armour, making it almost impossible to penetrate._**

 ** _Following its example, many Grimm, including myself, shed our beastial forms. Unfortunately, only some of the smartest survived while our brothers angrily attacked the nests of humans._**

 ** _We were named as a new Grimm. An echo. An mimic. A Remnant. Named after the very world itself. We were terrifying beasts to withhold._**

 ** _And as years passed in our human forms, many of us came to realise what had truly happened when we shed our armour. We gained a soul. In turn an aura. What remains of the Remnant's fled into the wilds to hide._**

 ** _Many hibernate in deep chasms or in the mountains themselves. Others have taken to the seas or into places humans would much rather avoid._**

 ** _I am the last remaining Remnant awake that still interacts with the humans. I continue to learn and grow. Easily speaking their many tongues, new and old._**

 ** _I am a descendant of Lupin._**

Ruby watches as Goodwitch paces around in the small interrogation room, a sigh of boredom escaping the young Rose's lips.

The door opens and a very familiar man enters in.

Professor Ozpin. Headmaster of Beacon Academy. The same academies that train and prepare hunters and huntresses to fight the forces of evil. Beacon Academy just happens to be one of four, and if not the most prestigious of all.

Ruby studies the man. A mop of silver hair sits on his head with spectacles that sit on the end of his nose, the framing crooked and bent in many places. But it doesn't hinder the job of the glasses as they sit perfectly on the headmasters nose. A green scarf covers his neck while he enters with an on looking cane being held in his right hand. His entire outfit looks old fashioned and just old in general.

Ozpin looks the young girl over and raised an eyebrow. She wore a long hooded cape that connected to a long sleeved corset dress with a battle skirt, finished off with leggings and calf high boots. The entire outfit was accented with blacks and reds, only the cape being completely red. But taking a closer look, he can see ends fraying, along stitches that have been made to repair the outfit multiple times. "You have… Silver eyes."

The girl blinks a few times. "Uh…"

Ozpin smiles kindly. "So! Where did you learn to do this?" He looks to the tablet that displays Ruby's fight against Torchwick and his men.

"I trained on my own." Ruby replies, still a little unsure as to what's happening, if anything, also having been put on edge by Ozpin's earlier comment.

"You taught yourself to use one of the most dangerous weapons on Remnant?" Ozpin raises an eyebrow at the girls statement, a little shocked and extremely impressed.

Ruby nods. "I had too sir."

Ozpin nods. "I see…" He puts a plate of cookies on the table, only to watch as they are devoured with seconds. "It's just that, I've only seen one other scythe wielder. A dusty old crow."

Ruby shrugs. "I'll have to fight him someday."

Ozpin nods and leans back in the chair. "So it seems. But why is an adorable girl such as yourself training to use a weapon of such high caliber?"

Ruby shrugs. "To protect myself and others. I guess I want to become a huntress."

Ozpin raises an eyebrow. "You want to slay monsters?"

Ruby nods. "I'm not sure which of the academies I will attend, but it'll offer me a good career once I've graduated. That will be a sure way to put food on the table."

Ozpin and Glynda study the young girl in front of them, looking almost saddened. "Do you know who I am?"

Ruby tilts her head, reminding the older man of a puppy. "You're Professor Ozpin. Headmaster of Beacon."

Ozpin grins. "Hello. Would you like to come to my school?"

Ruby's eyes widen in shock and happiness. "More than anything!"

Ozpin looks to Glynda behind him who lets out a harrumph. He looks back to the excitable teen. "Well… Alright."


	4. Chapter Three

Ozpin watches as the young girl walks down the darkened streets, worry filling him to the brim.

After inviting the girl to his school, Glynda had asked the girl for her information. Upon hearing the girl's surname, he was filled with shock.

Ruby Rose. Daughter of Summer Rose. Summer Rose entered Beacon Academy around the time Ozpin became headmaster. She led a fierce team of hunters by the name of Stark. Spelled STRQ. The S for Summer Rose. The T for Taiyang Xiao Long. The R for Raven Branwen. And lastly the Q for Qrow Branwen, Raven's twin brother.

Ozpin holds many cards close to his chest, only allowing a select few to know his secrets. Team STRQ was one of them. Until Summer Rose began questioning things. She died when Ruby was young, and Ozpin sure as hell hope the young Rose doesn't know why.

Unfortunately for him, Ruby Rose knows everything that transpired and more.

After all, Summer didn't want to leave Ruby to suffer the same fate she did.

It is truly ironic considering how things turned out. Truly ironic indeed.

Ruby vanishes before Ozpin's eyes in a flurry of red rose petals, stunning him at the obvious display of a powerful semblance.

He is reminded of the words etched into Summer's tombstone.

 _Summer Rose_

 _Thus kindly I scatter_

Ozpin takes a sip from the mug in his hand, finding himself wishing that the contents were of stronger nature than coffee. "Summer Rose… It had to be done…"

—

Ruby stands in front of what looks like an old and long abandoned warehouse. Stepping inside, a wide smile grows across her face at the sight of the many crates of dust. In the middle stands Roman Torchwick and the mysterious woman from the bullhead. Cinder Fall.

Ruby strides forward with a confidence that puts many to shame. A confidence that of course had to grow in order to get the job done. "Good job Roman. Your acting skills are as good as always."

The criminal grins as he mockingly bows. "Always a pleasure Red."

Ruby looks to Cinder and smirks. "Dare I say, I think phase two is ready to begin."

Cinder bows. "Of course my Lady Rose. It shall begin."

Ruby nods her appreciation before walking deeper into the warehouse, a grin stretches across her innocent looking face. A bloody revolution has begun. Are you prepared Ozpin…?

—

 _Red and white burst through the green forest. The colours of the cloaks standing out as Summer Rose pushes herself to run faster._

 _Ruby sobs as she clutches onto her mother, fear filling her tiny frame. "Mama! What's happening?! I'm scared!"_

 _Summer looks down at her child, Silver meeting silver and Summer gives the young girl a soft smile. "Don't be scared my little petal. It's just a game of tag! But if we get tagged, that means no more cookies!"_

 _Ruby wipes at her eyes and sniffles. "R-Really! T-Then we have to win."_

 _Summer smiles before looking serious as the shouts of the huntsmen get closer. Summer looks around fearfully before spotting a place to hide her young daughter. Summer gives Ruby a hug that is quickly followed by a kiss on the forehead. "Okay Ruby. I need you to be very quiet. You aren't to make a single sound because you won't get anymore cookies at all if you do. Okay?" Ruby gives a little nod, looking fearful at the thought of no more cookies._

 _Summer places the young Rose in a the alcove of a tree, ripping a piece of bark off another tree before stepping back towards her daughter. Summer pulls out a small journal and places it in Ruby's hands. "I want you to hold onto this for me Ruby. I love you my little petal. I will always be here for you." Summer places the bark over the hole, satisfied that it looks somewhat normal._

 _Summer rests her head against the tree, heavy tears falling from her eyes. "Be quiet now my little rose. I'll be back soon…" Summer bites back a sob. "And we'll make your favourite cookies if you are extra quiet."_

 _Ruby nods in the darkness, a small piece of light shining over the wood. Shifting in place, she peaks over the wood to see her mother standing in the middle of the field._

 _Soon the people playing tag enter the field and spot Summer, each raising their weapons. Ruby watches on in fear, knowing that such weapons could injure or even kill people._

" _Summer Rose. You will pay for your crimes!" One of the people dashes forward and slices the air where Summer was, only finding white rose petals in her place._

 _Ruby watches in awe and horror as her mother battles the many people. When she takes one down, two more replace them. The fight ends when everything seems to stop._

 _The people argue before one by one, they leave the clearing. In the middle of the clearing where her mother should've been standing proudly, she lays in the grass. Her once white cloak, now stained dark red with her blood. Summer's weapon sits in the grass a few feet away, something Summer would never allow when she was alive._

 _Quiet sobs rack Ruby's small frame, everything now finally clicking into place. Summer Rose is dead._

 _Day slowly fell into night, and that's when Ruby chose to leave her hiding spot. Slowly, ever so slowly, she creeps towards her mother. "M-Mom?" Ruby's voice cracks with emotion, feelings of hurt, betrayal, and sadness overwhelm her._

 _The very feelings that attract Grimm._

 _A snark rings through the clearing and Ruby looks up to see a Beowulf launch itself towards the young girl, mouth wide open to kill the young human…_

Ruby sits up bolt right, gasping for air a sage reigns in her emotions. "Just a nightmare…" Ruby remains still in her soft bed, trying to push the horrific memories from her mind, with little luck.

Heaving a sigh, Ruby slowly stands up, stretching as she glances at the time. The harsh light of the alarm clock does little to bother her as they flash 2:24 AM.

Memories are most definitely annoying.


	5. Chapter Four

_Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation._

Adam Taurus. Many know him for his radical views and controlling nature. But no one can truly blame him.

Seeing how we are Faunus. Faunus at any rate are seen as second class citizens, simply because we have one aspect of an animal. Because of this, the White Fang has risen to take steps towards an equal future between human and Faunus.

"Blake. It's time."

The raven haired woman sits on a rock out crop, surrounded by the forever fall forest. Amber eyes turn from the forest and look straight into Adam's mask. A dark sleeveless vest that reached to her waistline was worn over a white undershirt that split just at her navel, revealing a strip of flesh as the vest 'moved' in the wind. White shorts were worn with purple leggings for maximum maneuverability in fictional duels. While one bicep had a black arm-warmer on the left and leather wrist-wrappings on the right. The defining feature for her, is of course the pair of black ears atop her head. "Okay." Her naturally soft and smooth voice comes out quieter than a whisper.

The pair foot through the forest at high speeds. Adam's Red hair hiding his horns while a Grimm mask covers his face.

Blake quickly dons her own White Fang mask and the two stand at the top of a rather steep hill. The red forest losing its leaves with every wind gust, almost making the leaves seem like rose petals as it flows around the two.

The pair wait in anticipation before the horn of a train is heard in the distance. Ten minutes later, the train speeds along the tracks below.

Both Blake and Adam slid down the hill before launching onto the train. Adam opens a hatch, allowing Blake to jump in first before he quickly follows.

AK-130 androids surround them. Blake recognises them as the same androids to fight in the forests when there aren't enough hunters or huntresses.

"Looks like we're gonna be doing this the hard way." Adam's voice echoes around the train car.

The droids come to life and begin to circle the pair.

Blake rolls her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic."

One of the androids activate its gun, pointing it at the pair. "Intruders. Identify yourself."

Adam responds by cutting the Android in two and he and Blake proceed to completely annihilate the Androids in the car. Eventually, they burst out of the freight car onto a flatcar and encounter a horde of Androids running towards them.

"Let's do this." Adam calls out.

Blake smirks. One hand tightly grasped a pure black katana and was pointed at nothing; the other was extended to the floor in front of her for balance. Gambol Shroud. A katana built on top of a nine Millimeter pistol. A ribbon wraps around Blake's arm that looks to be attached to the gun. She throws the katana, the entire thing flying end over end before burying itself into one of the androids. She jumps into the air as one of the robots release a torrent where she was, a shadowy clone taking her place. In the air, Blake tugs on the ribbon of her weapon, watching as it decapitates the first robot before burying in the second one.

Landing, she nods to Adam before swinging the weapon around herself,watching as the blade slices the droids like they were butter.

Once all the droids have fallen, the pair make their way to the second freight car. Adam opens one of the crates and grins. "Perfect. Move up to the next car." He closes it. "I'll set the charges."

Blake raises an eyebrow. "What about the crew members?"

"What about them?" An odd clicking fills the car and Adam turns his head to spot a Spider Droid climbing the roof of the car. Adam smirks and moves to fight it.

Blake watches before calling out anxiously. "Adam!" She races towards the droid and attempts to slash at it, watching in confusion as her weapon bounces off harmlessly. The droid knocks her to the ground before attempting to crush her under one of its sharp legs.

Adam races forward and grabs Blake before she's crushed by the leg, pulling the two back. "We need to get out of here." Adam nods and sets Blake down. The pair have to leap to the side as the Spider Droid releases a spray of bullets upon them. Both Blake and Adam make a break for the door before leaping onto a third car, one that's doesn't carry a car on top.

"Buy me time!" Adam's harsh voice calls out through the wind whipping passed their faces.

"Are you sure?"

"Do it!"

Blake begins to jump around and distract the droid, attempting to find a weakness within its metal body.

"Move!" Adam's voice causes Blake to leap of the droid and back to him, landing in a crouch.

The droid buries itself into the ground before releasing a powerful beam of light. Adam stops the beam with his own sword. Wilt. As his body starts to glow, the droid jumps toward him. Adam then slashes out with his sword, disintegrating the droid and even affecting the trees in the Red Forest causing their leaves to fly into the air.

As Adam walks back towards Blake, he finds her on a separate train car standing near the connector between the cars. As he reaches out to her…

"Goodbye." Blake pulls off her mask and stares at her long time partner and friend. She severs the connection and lets the released carts slow down as she lets the rest of the train continue en-route.


	6. Chapter Five

_**Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or forms of measure. And all of it... irreplaceable.**_

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome... Weiss Schnee." The hidden voice calls out.

A young girl in white with a barely visible scar over her left eye walks out on stage into the spotlight as a piano plays the opening of a soft song, before a crowd of people, occasionally taking pictures from their stands around the white castle they appear to be in. She closes her eyes and begins to sing.

Her melodic and angel like voice sounds out. "Mirror. Tell me something, whose the loneliest of all…"

 _While she sings, the view sinks down into her scar-free reflection on the stage, the world tilting until she opens her eyes and finds herself in another place, the light and shadows shifting until a warrior in giant armor with an equally massive broadsword appears before her. She backflips just as the Giant Armor brings its blade down on where she was, and the song continues as her flashback takes over._

"Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all?"

 _Weiss unsheathes her own rapier, Myrtenaster, and darts forward, getting a hit on her enemy before twirling into a landing. The Giant Armor swings again, but she dashes away and lands several spinning slashes on the creature. It retaliates when she uppercuts into the air, arcing its sword around and hitting Weiss' rapier, which she brings up just in time to merely knock her back. When she slows down, Weiss looks up to see the Giant Armor leaping into the air and hurling the sword down on her, then swinging it back up in an effort to get its fast-moving target. It finally hits her blade again, and she is knocked away until she rolls back on her feet._

"Fear of, what's inside of me. Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?"

 _With white energy now gathered on her fingertips, Weiss motions to the ground beneath her, and a snowflake symbol appears that propels her forward at extreme speeds. Despite the Giant Armor's attempts to slash at her, Weiss disappears and reappears all around it, leaping through the air using her glyphs and landing a blow with each pass._

 _After a slash to the face, the Giant Armor aims at Weiss' feet, who leaps over it and gets an undefended fist to her head. Weiss is launched yet again, but this time, her attempt to get back up is weak and unsure. A worried Weiss closes her eyes._

The moon makes itself known when the clouds in front of it pass, showering Weiss in its light as she sings, eyes still closed.

 _She stands back up, eyeing the Giant Armor with blood trailing down the left side of her face, and holds out her sword, spinning the revolver in the hilt until a red energy appears over the blade. The Giant Armor runs up and drops its sword on her, but it meets her rapier and is deflected off._

"Mirror, mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see! I can keep it from the world. Why won't you let me hide from me?"

 _Weiss switches it up and spins, a cyan light now creating a wave of ice when she strikes it into the ground that freezes the Giant Armor in place. It swings again, but Weiss runs ahead and jumps on the sword. Myrtenaster is now glowing yellow, and she rolls on the broadsword and slashes at her foe, destroying the ice crystals in shards of purple but impaling its weapon into the ground. She rotates the hilt again and a snowflake circle spins under her when the Giant Armor tries to hammer its fist down on her, but she rolls out of the way and activates the glyph, launching the warrior up into the air and becoming trapped by Weiss' beams of blue energy._

"Mirror, mirror, tell me something. Who's the loneliest of all?"

 _With one final leap into the air, Myrtenaster glows with the white markings on its blade and Weiss descends onto the Giant Armor. When her attack is done and she lands in a crouch, the black hollows of the enemy light up and crash to the ground in a shower of ice and snow behind her._

"I'm the loneliest of all."

Weiss gets up and closes her eyes, finishing Mirror Mirror to a gentle shower of snowflakes and a roar of applause from her audience. She opens her eyes and looks around as if in a daze, then peers up at the slightly-scattered moon above.

She dips her head and bows to the crowd as the curtains close around her.


	7. Chapter Six

_**Scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one sided and easily processed. Yet every misshapen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its would be judgement.**_

Yang Xiao Long is most easily recognized because of her wild mane of blonde hair. A yellow sports bra covers her chest with the symbol of a burning heart sewn into the right side. A brown leather jacket covers her arms, ending just below her elbows. Skin tight black shorts are followed by a half hip cape. A pair of bulky yellow and black bracelets sit around her wrists.

Yang is seen riding her motorcycle through the streets of Vale. She eventually stops in front of a club that is blasting music. As she walks through the club, she sees Roman Torchwick ending a conversation with Junior. She makes her way to the bar where Junior stands.

"Strawberry Sunrise. No ice. Oh, and one of those little umbrellas." Yang calls out offhandedly, leaning against the counter.

Junior rolls his eyes. "Aren't you a little young to be in this club, Blondie?"

Yang giggles. "Aren't you a little old to have a name like Junior?"

Junior walks out from the counter, raising an eyebrow at the girls attitude. "So you know who I am. You got a name, sweetheart?"

Yang smirks. "Yes, Junior, I've got several. But instead of sweetheart, you can just call me sir." She grabs his groin and squeezes it painfully causing Junior to cry out in pain comically. "People say you know everything." Yang brings up a tablet that has a picture on it. "Tell me where I can find her and I'll let you go."

Junior gasps out in pain, his voice strained. "I've never seen her before, I swear!"

Yang glowers down at the pitiful man. "Excuse me?"

"I swear sir!"

Men with black tailored suits and red tinted sunglasses begin to surround the pair.

Yang's smirk grows wider. "Hmm, looks like we have an audience. This must kind of embarrassing for you, huh? Awkward..."

"Listen, blondie sir. If you want to make it out of this club alive, I suggest you let me go. Now!" Junior cries out, still obviously in pain. With a sadistic smirk, Yang releases the man who sighs in relief. "You'll pay for that."

Yang's smirk changes to a grin as He puts on his sunglasses and walks away from her. Yang following closely behind. "Oh Junior, I was just playing with you! Don't be so sensitive! Come on, let's kiss and make up, okay?"

Junior halts in his tracks before turning around. "Huh? Uh… Okay?"

As he leans in, she punches him in the face sending him flying across the room. The henchmen run towards her. Activating Ember Celica, she jumps into the air and punches down, sending them flying back. She takes out all the henchmen and even the DJ when the two malachite twins step into the room.

The bracelets, turned gauntlets, cover most of her lower arm, revealing a few shotgun casings under the metal.

Henchmen begin to run towards the blonde girl, each carrying a machete with a red blade. One reaches her first and attempts to slash at her. She ducks under his swing before nailing a punch to his stomach, the man flying away. Yang spins in a circle before launching herself into the air. Firing off a shot, she soars towards the ground and punches it with her fist in a fiery blast. A shockwave flies across the club, shattering the glass pillars around the club and knocking back the men.

Yang stands up from her crouch and smirks. As the men begin to regain their feet, she fired the gauntlets behind her, launching her I to the air once again. She brings her leg up and kicks him down, cracking the dance floor. The blonde lets out a laugh as more of the henchmen begin to surround her. Spinning in a circle, she kicks a henchmen who collides with another. Ducking under a swing, she headbutts another man, knocking him to the floor. Leaping forward towards the first man she kicked, she delivers a powerful blow that knocks him and his friend into the wall. Firing her gauntlets behind her once again, she flies towards another grabbing ducking the swing. Swiping his feet from under him, she straightens up and sends him a wink before punching him into the ground.

A sword swings at her head, she blocks with the metal of the gauntlet and uses the shot of the gauntlets to propel her punches. The man stumbles back and Yang throws a series of punches before kicking him away.

She glances around and finds most of the men unconscious or holding their wounded pride. The DJ on a raised platform pulls out a gun and begins to fire wildly. Yang races forward, using her aura to stop the bullets she is unable to stop. When she gets close enough, she fires the gauntlets to launch herself into the air. Punching the DJ in the chest. He stumbles back against the wall to be elbowed in the face and have the gun ripped from his hands.

He watches in a daze as Yang grabs the back of his head and slams it into the set. She picks him up and launches him onto the floor below where he remains.

Yang grins as she spots the twins. Melanie and Militia Malachite. Melanie is a teenage girl with long black hair and pale green eyes, highlighted by heavy cyan makeup. She wears a white, strapless dress with cyan lining. A large white flower hairpin sits up her ear, with a white feather scarf. Long white boots cover her feet with blades at the heels.

Militia is similar to her sister, instead having red heavy makeup with a red strapless dress that includes black lining. Large white and red feather sit above her left ear. Red gloves go up to her elbows with similar blades attached at the wrists. Red boots go up to her thighs.

Militia is the first to speak. "Melanie, who is this girl?"

Melanie let's out a sigh. "I dunno Miltia but we should teach her a lesson."

Yang grins and loads another belt of ammunition into Ember Celica. Yang leaps from the raised platform and fires three shots towards the twins, each shot exploding as it makes contact with the ground. The twins both backflip away from the explosions before regaining their stance.

The boxer lands on the ground and fires off more shots as the twins rush towards her, making sure to avoid her explosive ammo.

Melanie kicks at the blonde, only managing to make contact with her gauntlets and push Yang away. Militia rushes forward and attempts a few swipes at Yang who easily dodges, only to trade with her sister who races forward once again. She kicks up off the ground, managing to land a few kicks only to be blocked. Landing she attempts to swipe Yang's legs from under her, only to watch as the blonde leaps over her leg.

Melanie lands in a crouch as her sister swipes at the blonde brute. Militia and Melanie strike Yang at the same time, sending her flying away where she rolls and lands in a crouch to remain prepared should they continue their duel attack.

Yang begins to grow irritated and fires her gauntlets behind her once again, golden hair seeming to almost glow as she lands a powerful blow on Melanie who goes sailing away. Using Militia's distraction, Yang fires off another lunch that sends the girl through a pillar.

Melanie grows angry and stands up, attempting to land kicks on Yang, the former backing up. The blonde grabs Melanie's arm and swings her around, blonde hair glowing more prominently as she flips in the air and delivers a powerful kick to the twins head.

Yang glances around the destroyed club, watching offhandedly as Melanie stumbles away.

Junior stands before Yang, a black and red bazooka in hand. "You're gonna play for this Blondie." He aims the weapon towards her and a multitude of middles launch towards Yang. She fires her gauntlets to stop the main blasts from reaching her. Junior grows angry and the weapon changes into a bulkier version of a bat that he swings powerfully at Yang, knocking her off balance slightly. Junior lands another blow that sends Yang back and into some glass as she lands. The taller man rests the bat around his shoulders, smirking as Yang struggles to her feet.

Yang's hair glows like a yellow fire atop her head as she launches towards Junior who attempts to deflect her as she lands powerful punches on her. Yang grins and launches the last punch that Junior blocks with his weapon, sending him back a good distance. The bat flies off and he's left with the broken handle.

But Yang has little care for that as she spots the few strands of golden hair in Junior's hands. Yang's lilac eyes bleed into red as she erupts in fire. Anger ever present as the amount of power unleashed destroys the rest of the glass around her. Running as fast as she can and with the help of her gauntlets, the light that surrounds her becomes brighter until everything is simply black and white, except for her red eyes. Her fist connects with Junior's face and he goes flying out of the club and into the streets below.

Yang tenderly touches her hair and sighs. "The nerve of that guy…"

"Yang?" Said blonde whips her head around to meet a pair of lilac eyes, lighter than her own. Taiyang Xiao Long. "What are you doing out here?"

Yang only hangs her head and rubs the back of her neck. "I heard Junior has tons of information. I thought... Maybe he knew where _she_ was."

Taiyang only gives a sad smile and wraps his daughter into a hug. "We'll find her Yang. We'll find Ruby together."


	8. Chapter Seven

Ruby bounces on the balls of her feet as she gazes outside the large airship that is currently transporting her to Beacon Academy.

Not particularly one for socialising, Ruby has taken to the windows to watch as the city of Vale grows smaller under their feet.

Ruby glances around the airship, watching each and everyone person of interest to her. A blonde with bulky looking bracelets watches the news on the recent capture attempt on Roman Torchwick.

Another girl sits quietly in the corner, a bow situated on her head. Her hair reminding Ruby of a raven's. A book sits in the girl's hands, one that Ruby knows well. Ninja's of Love. Full of thrilling action scenes and captured princesses. Ruby much rather prefers the pictures that show the weapons they use, but that's just Ruby being the weapon nut she is.

A familiar voice flies through the airship, drawing everyone's attention to the holographic form of Glynda Goodwitch. "Hello, and welcome to Beacon. My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." The hologram disappears and Ruby returns to the windows with the many new students.

Someone groans to Ruby's left and she glances over to see a sick blonde male clutching his stomach. Stumbling over towards the blonde female with lilac eyes, he promptly vomits all over her boots.

Ruby winces in sympathy for the girl who cries out in disgust. "EW! Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!"

Ruby's eyes widen as the blonde stumbles towards her. "Get-Get away! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me!"

Much to Ruby's delight, the ship lands and the blonde male is one of the first off the ship. As Ruby walks passed, he continues to projectile vomit into the trash can, slightly grossing Ruby out as she walks on a bit faster. The throng of students begin to clear and Ruby is left staring up at the impressive sight of the Academy. A large wall full of arches and pillars surrounds multiple gardens and the pathways around Beacon. In front of her is the main academy. Behind that, Beacon Tower, the most prominent feature of the academy sits tall and proud.

Shaking herself from her awe, Ruby follows the students into a large amphitheater with a raised platform in the front. Choosing a spot near the back, she begins to observe the many students.

Weiss Schnee frets over her suitcases. The heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Most known for their questionable business methods and their prominent hate for Faunus.

Pyrrha Nikos. Winner of some fancy tournament for four years and mascot of the Pumpkin Petes cereal. Even the mere thought of that sugary cereal causes Ruby to gag.

Ruby loves sugar, but sometimes there can be such thing as too much.

Shaking herself from the thoughts of that unhealthy thing people hold in their houses worldwide, she searches for anyone else and finds no one.

Glynda and Ozpin's entrance distract her from any further thoughts.

Ozpin steps up to the microphone and taps it before speaking. "I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Students begin to whisper as he walks away, only to be silenced by Glynda. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

Following the students once again, she finds herself in the ballroom as promised. Choosing a spot on the floor, she sets her meagre belongings down before heading into the bathroom to change, and that is where she makes her first and unexpected friend who crashes down beside her.

"This is like an awesome slumber party!" Yang Xiao Long cries out in her tank top and shorts.

Ruby sighs and sets her book aside. "I'm pretty sure your parents wouldn't approve of all the guys."

Yang grins. "I know _I_ do." Yang's voice comes out in a purr as her eyes are drawn to the shirtless and muscular men. The blonde male who puked on her shoes earlier walks by in a full body onesie, causing the blonde to shiver in disgust before turning to Ruby. "What's that?"

Ruby sets her drawing aside and shrugs. "Not sure yet. I'll show you it once it's done."

Satisfied, Yang begins to glance around the area before grinning. "I know what you need! More friends!"

Ruby groans and slumps forward. "Ugh. New people."

Yang snickers and pulls Ruby to her feet. "Come on Rose! They are just friends you haven't met yet! Like me!"

Ruby raises an eyebrow as she's dragged along behind Yang. "What if I didn't want to be your friend?" A hit to the head is the only response she gets.

Yang drags them to the raven haired girl from earlier, Ruby vaguely questioning why she still wears her bow. "Hello!"

Ruby struggles in Yang's grasp before freeing herself. "Yang. She's reading. Leave her alone."

Yang shoves Ruby to the side and her grin grows wider. "Names Yang! And this is Rose!"

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Blake…" She looks to Ruby. "Aren't you a little young to be here?"

Ruby hangs her head. "I don't look that young…"

Yang snickers from behind her hand. "Well um… I like.. Your pyjamas." Yang's voice grows higher as Blake refuses to look up from her book. "And your bow is cute."

"Right…" Blake raises an eyebrow, looking bored.

Yang looks to Ruby. "Well uh… Nice night isn't it?"

Blake graves a sigh. "Yes - it's lovely! Almost as lovely as this book! That I will continue to read." Yang and Ruby continue to stand before her. "As soon as you leave."

Yang leans over to Ruby before whispering. "Yeah… This girl is a lost cause."

Ruby slaps Yang's arm and turns to Blake. "I saw you on the airship. Couldn't help but notice you had Ninja's of Love."

And before Yang can react, she watches as the book nerds become engrossed in a conversation about a book she has never heard about.

A white haired woman marched over, white hair falling over her back. "What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"

Ruby's and Blake's conversation slows to a halt as they stare up at the irritated heiress. Ruby blurts the first that comes to mind. "Hello princess."

Yang bursts out into laughter, clutching her sides as Blake chuckles behind her hand. "It's heiress actually. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."

Weiss huffs before smiling smugly. "Finally. Some recognition!"

Blake tilts her head and closes her book. ""The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners."

Ruby chuckles as Weiss grows red in the face. "Wha- How dare- The nerve of... Ugh!" Weiss stomps off, leaving the trio to chuckle at the girl's attitude.

Ruby stands up and brushes her pants off. "It was nice talking to you. I'll have to recommend some books to you later." Ruby gives a wave to Blake who watches as the smaller girl drags Yang away.

Blake picks up the nearby candles before blowing them out, leaving the room in darkness for people to rest for initiation tomorrow.


	9. Chapter Eight

Lie Ren slowly opens and closes his eyes before his vision is filled with that of his friends. Nora Valkyrie. "Wake up lazy butt!"

Ren gets up with a groan as Nora begins to hound him.

"It's morning! It's morning! It's morning! It's morning!" Nora sings out cheerfully.

Lie Ren sighs again and pushes himself up, with Nora following him into the bathroom where he brushes his teeth.

"I can't believe we've been at Beacon for a full twenty-four hours! Not that I thought we'd get kicked out or anything, I mean, you're the perfect student and I'm... well, I'm me! But it's just crazy, you know?" Nora's excitedly prattles his ear off.

Ren finishes and walks back to the ballroom where he begins to clean up.

"We've been friends for soooooooo long! What are the odds we'd still be together? Well, not "together-together..." Not that I'm not saying that you're not handsome; you are handsome, but that'd just be weird, right?"

Ren seems to be ignoring Nora's chatter when it is in fact the exact opposite as he leads her to the mess hall.

"Right! What was I thinking? But still, I hope we end up on the same team together!" Nora slurps up a pancake. "Oohhhh! We should come up with some sort of plan, to make sure we end up on the same team together! What if we bribe the headmaster? No, that won't work. He has the school."

Ruby watches the pair from afar mentally wondering how the two came to meet and obviously be friends. Despite how entertaining the duo is to watch. Quickly shoveling the rest of the food into her mouth, Ruby stops by the water bathroom and checks her outfit over. Short black hair has been tousled over her head, the ends were dyed to match the rest of her hair for her new disguise. Grey coloured contacts were put back in earlier to hide the silver behind them. A simple black hoodie with a rose design printed on the back is followed with red fingerless gloves and black leggings and boots.

While the disguise might not fool many, it will help keep those in power, such as Ozpin and his 'inner circle' off her tail for sometime while they try to figure out where she was all those years after Summer's death.

With a simple nod, Ruby exits the, following behind the odd pair of friends into the locker room.

"I know! We'll have some sort of signal! Like a distress signal!" Nora gasps. "A secret signal so we can find each other in the forest! Can you imitate a sloth?"

Ren for the first time all morning decides to speak. "Nora?"

Nora turns to her friend. "Yes Ren?"

Ren sheathes his weapons. "I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."

Nora seems to pause before snapping her fingers. "That's why it's perfect! No one will suspect we're working together!"

Ren chuckles. "Come on Nora."

The orange haired female skips next to him. "But Not together-together."

Ruby chuckles at their banter as she pulls her beloved weapon from the rocket propelled locker. After securing the scythe-sniper hybrid to the back of her waist, Ruby pulls a few more magazines she had prepared prior to arriving at Beacon, and begins to place them around her body.

The blonde male from earlier walks by, shaking his head in frustration. "Ridiculous! There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday! I would've remembered having to count that high! Why does this have to happen today?"

The boy passed by Weiss Schnee and Pyrrha Nikos who are also preparing themselves.

"So, Pyrrha, have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself!" Weiss attempts to butter up the red haired champion.

Pyrrha looks thoughtful for a second. "Hmm... I'm not quite sure. I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

Weiss shrugs. "Well... I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together."

Pyrrha nods. "That sounds grand."

Weiss smiles. "Great!"

The blonde male buts in between the two. "You know what else is great? Me. Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you."

Weiss rolls her eyes while Pyrrha smiles. "Nice to meet you Jaune!"

Weiss rubs the bridge of her nose. "Jaune, is it? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

Jaune Looks Pyrrha over. "Nope. Not in the slightest snow angel."

"This is Pyrrha."

Pyrrha smiles and waves. "Hello again."

Weiss sighs. "Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum!"

Jaune blinks. "Never heard of it."

Weiss lets out a loud scoff. "She's won the Mistral Region Tournaments four years in a row! A new record!"

"The what now?" Jaune looks even more confused.

Weiss begins to wave her arms around angrily. "She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"

Jaune Let's our a loud gasp. "That's you! But they only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!"

Pyrrha looks embarrassed as she rubs her arm. "Yeah, it was pretty cool. Sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you."

Ruby walks up and leans on Weiss who lets out a shriek of anger. "Yeah. Swore I almost died from sugar overload." Ruby holds out her hand. "Rose. I really like your weapons. Very well built."

Pyrrha smiles and shakes Ruby's hand. "Pyrrha and thank you."

Ruby grins and begins to walk off, giving a two handed wave. "See ya later Jaune, Pyrrha. Snow cone." A wave of ice is thrown Ruby's way that she quickly dodges, all while cackling.


	10. Chapter Nine

Pyrrha Nikos is an exceptional warrior. Reminding everyone of the Amazon's that lived within the kingdom of Mistral, it's no mystery as to who she descended from.

With her sword, spear, and rifle combined into a simple looking weapon, she fights with the strength of the many warriors before her. A shield to always protect and defend, she is the embodiment of champion.

Her brilliant red hair and vivid green eyes, combined with her leather and bronze armour, she is a truly something to behold. Combined with her semblance of polarity, she is easily the undefeated champion and wielder of Miló and Akoúō.

But because of her many victories, she has been placed on a pedestal, one that Jaune Arc has not seen much to her delight. He treated her like a normal person, something she hasn't felt in a _very_ long time.

Ruby shakes herself from her thoughts, before focusing on the professors. Glynda with a tablet in hand and Ozpin holding a mug.

Each student in lined up on a silver board overlooking the cliffs edge.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin takes a sip from his mug as Glynda takes over.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

Ozpin nods his appreciation. "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Nora looks to Ren and smirks. "See?! I told you!"

Ozpin continues, ignoring the hyper girl's burst. "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die." Jaune laughs nervously next to Ruby, scratching the back of his head. "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will reguard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Jaune raises his hand. "Yeah um.. Sir?"

Ozpin ignores the blonde. "Good! Now take your positions."

Everyone takes a pose, Nora crouching low, Ren holding his weapons in hand, Yang raises her fists, while Ruby simply bends her knees.

Jaune waves his arms. "Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question." The tile Weiss stands on launches the heiress into the air, she is quickly followed by more of her peers. "So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?"

Ozpin takes a sip. "No. You will be falling."

More students are thrown from their springboards, all of which that Jaune continues to miss. "Oh, uh, I see... So, like, did you hand out parachutes for us?"

The headmaster raises an eyebrow. "No. You will be using your own landing strategy."

Both Nora and Ren are launched within seconds of each other, the girl's excited cheering being caught with the wind. "Uh-huh… Yeah…"

Yang winks towards Ruby before placing a pair of tinted sunglasses over her eyes before she's launched with a whoop of glee and adrenaline. A second later, Ruby joins the crazy blonde as she flies through the air.

Jaune nods slowly. "So, what exactly is a landing strategYYY!..." Jaune is launched into the air, while others remain controlled, Jaune is just a mass of limbs flailing through the air.

Ozpin simply takes a sip from his mug as he watches his future students go flying.

Ruby for her part didn't quite plan this far. Neither did she plan to headbutt a crow at Mach 15, causing it to burst into feather. "BIRDIE NO!" Ruby watches helplessly as it falls to the ground before disappearing from sight. With a sigh of despair, she unfolds Crescent Rose, hooking the blade around a tree to slow her descent. Once on the ground, she brushes herself off, sighing as she picks twigs from her hair. "Stupid trees." Ruby swings the scythe around her before it folds into a box and is placed at her waist yet again.

Bushes shake behind Ruby and she spins on the spot. "Yang?" A black bear thing exits the bushes, obviously though, it is not a bear due to its massive size and bone plated armour. Not to mention the red eyes that bore into hers. Ruby blinks as the Ursa roars in her face. "Nope. Not Yang."

Another roar sounds from behind Ruby and she lets out a heavy sigh. "You brought a friend didn't you?"

Both Ursa let out a challenging roar in response to her word before the first charges her. The Ursa slows down as it finds rose petals where the human stood. A mechanical whirring is heard above and both Ursa raise their head to see the red human spinning wildly with something in its hands.

Ruby smirks as the butt of her weapon slams into the first Ursa's head, knocking it into the ground. "Fuck you too." She pulls the trigger and the bullet punctures the Ursa's head, causing it to fall limp.

Before the last Ursa can react, it falls dead, a pure black katana sticking out from its back.

"Blake?" Ruby blinks as she looks to her new partner for the next four years at Beacon. Ruby huffs as she folds her scythe before placing it at her waist.

Blake shrugs and pulls her weapon out of the disintegrating Grimm corpse. "Oh well. Come on."

Ren dusts himself off, having just finished another Grimm that attacked him.

"Kurrrra. Kurrrraa." Nora's distinct voice sounds from the tree he's under. Looking up, Nora hangs upside down on the branch and grins.

Ren gives his own smile. "I still don't think that's what sloths sound like."

Nora let's out a small giggle and pokes Ren's nose with her finger. "Boop!"

Glynda stares down at the tablet, switching between cameras that have been placed in the forest. "The last pair have been formed sir. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. Poor boy... I can't possibly imagine those two getting along. Still, he's probably better off than Miss Nikos."

"Mmmm." Is Ozpin's simple response.

Glynda deactivates the tablet. "I don't care what his transcripts say. That Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat. I guess we'll find out soon enough. At their current pace, they should reach the temple within just a few minutes." Glynda looks to the man. "Speaking of which, what did you use as relics this year?" Silence is met with her question. "Professor Ozpin?"

Ozpin remains silent, looking at his own tablet, a smaller device than what Glynda carries called a scroll. On the scroll is the footage of Ruby Rose and her partner walking through the Emerald Forest side by side. A curious and rather odd look on his face.

 _Why is Ruby telling everyone her last name? Is this a clue to her past?_


	11. Chapter Ten

Ruby grows bored as she trudges through the forest. A rather loud squawk brings her out of her thoughts of boredom. Both her and Blake look to the sky to see a giant bird flying above them.

A Nevermore, and an ancient one by the looks of things. Ruby turns to Blake and grins. "I have a plan…"

Moments later, the Ladybug pair finds themselves riding atop the Grimm.

"WHY DID I LET YOU DO THIS?!" Blake's usually calm personality has obviously been shattered as she clutches into the Nevermore's feathers.

Her shout is of course drowned out by Ruby's maniacal laughter. "WOOOO! FUCK YEAH!" Ruby pulls out her scythe. "PLEASE KEEP YOUR HANDS AND FEET ON THE NEVERMORE AT ALL TIMES UNTIL WE HAVE LANDED. THANK YOU FOR RIDING NEVERMORE AIRLINES!" The Nevermore's head is chopped off and the body begins to fall, Blake's screaming drowned out by the wind.

The corpse crashes into the ground, launching the pair away from the Grimm body and onto the ground. Ruby immediately gets to her feet, dusting herself off. "Let's do that again sometime!" Her only response is Blake groaning after having face planted.

"You! You almost crashed a Nevermore on us you dolt!" Weiss' shrill voice rings out as she crosses the Nevermore.

Ruby raises an eyebrow and folds her arms. "Have you ever tried steering a Grimms corpse as it falls from the sky. A little hard to do that Ice Queen."

Weiss huffs as Yang spots Ruby. She races over and opens her arms to give the smaller girl a hug. "ROSE!"

Ruby grins and throws her own arms up. "Yang!"

Nora jumps in the middle, startling the two with her shout. "Nora!"

"NORA!" Ren's voice calls out as he exits the forest line.

Nora heads up to ruins with chess pieces on pedestals. Nora picks out the rook piece and balances it on her head. "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

"Nora!" Ren calls out once again.

Nora giggles and lets the piece fall into her hands. "Coming Ren!"

Ruby walks up to the pieces and picks up the Knight piece. "Hey Blake. How about a cute pony!"

Blake smiles weakly and gives her partner a thumbs up as Yang and Weiss choose the other knight piece.

Screaming draws everyone's attention to the forest once again, and something yellow flies out of the trees before face planting in the dirt in the same manner Blake did.

Ruby walks over to the male wearing the black long sleeve hoodie with a white chest plate over the top. "Hi Jaune!"

Jaune groans. "Hi Ruby…"

Pyrrha bursts from the tree line, running wildly.

Ruby waves her arms. "HI PYRRHA." A loud shriek fills the air and the tree line bursts as a Grimm bursts out. One Ruby fully recognizes as a Death Stalker or a scorpion. "Hi Death Stalker."

Weiss hits Ruby over the head. "Not the time! We need to get that thing off Pyrrha's tail!"

Ruby smirks. "I've got it. Get everyone away from here!" Ruby gets into a runner crouch before activating her semblance. A trail of rose petals follow behind her as she pushes herself to her limits, becoming a swirl of red as she races towards the Death Stalker, passing Pyrrha in seconds.

Many people has always wondered why Ruby sheds rose petals when she uses her semblance. Well since speed is her semblance, her eyes become useless as she moves faster than her brain can process. The petals act as homing beacons, telling her where she is and has been without needing her sight.

Ruby headbutts the massive scorpion, sending it flying back a good hundred feet. She traces her trail back towards her friends before stopping before them. "Come on! That won't hold it long! We need to move!" Ruby motions for everyone to move, something they quickly do after retrieving their chess pieces.

The teenagers run for their lives across the plain, heading towards the cliffs in front of them. A loud shriek is heard and another Nevermore is seen flying above them. It releases a torrent of feathers onto the group, one nearly missing Ruby's leg.

Looking towards her allies, she finds all of them to be breathing heavily, unlike herself.

Quickly forming a plan she glances at Weiss and Blake. "Weiss! Do you have a semblance to help launch us into the air?"

Weiss grins. "Of course! I'm a Schnee!"

Ruby veers towards Yang and leaps on her back. "Blake!" Blake tosses her weapon towards the two, Yang snatching it.

Weiss forms some strange glyph under the duo that acts as a launching pad.

Blake tugs on the ribbon and launches Yang and Ruby into the sky.

Yang frowns as they begin to fall short. Ruby grins as she pats Yang's back. "Thanks for the lift! Catch her Weiss!" Ruby stands on Yang and leaps into the air powerfully, sending Yang towards the ground.

Yang lets out a sigh as she is slowed by some strange glyph before being set on the ground.

Ruby flies up next to the bird as it lets out a challenging squawk before clapping its powerful beak over her.

"Rose!" Yang watched helplessly as the bird turns to fly off. Only to watch as the bird falters before beginning to fall. A loud boom echoes through the area and bits of the bird fall back to the earth, dissolving into rose petals.

In the midst is a red figure falling to the ground quickly.

Weiss casts another glyph and catches the girl mid air before slowly lowering her to the ground.

Ruby grins and gives Weiss a thumbs up. "Thanks Ice Queen!"

Nora's cackle fills the air as she lands a blow on the Deathstalker that obviously reappeared during Ruby's fight with the Nevermore.

Swing her hammer, Nora, pushes the stinger it's tail further into the Death Stalker's skull, causing it to grow limp as it meets the same fate as the Nevermore.

The eight take a seat, each just as exhausted as the last. Fighting really takes a lot out of you.

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Pictures of four guys are shown on a large screen as Ozpin says each of their names. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"

The audience give a round of applause before the next team is called.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." Nora cheers and gives Ren a big hug. "Led by Jaune Arc."

Pyrrha grins and punches her leader in the arm, only to apologise profusely as she knocked him over with the punch.

"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin motions for the four to move closer. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

Weiss looks to her right in surprise while Yang simply gawks at the you her after hearing the girls full name. Blake give the younger girl a thumbs up.

"It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year…" Ozpin watches the newly formed team RWBY as they celebrate.


	12. Authors Notes (02-17 09:30:26)

Hello everyone, sorry for posting this last week, I've had midterms and all that jazz going on for the past week, everything is finally done and I thank you all for being patient! I was working on the next chapter of A Different Rose but was unable to finish it so two new chapters this week for ya'll. Blah blah blah, pun is life and yeah that's just about it. Enjoy your week and pet a dog. They deserve it.


	13. Authors Notes 2

Hello everyone, sorry for posting this last week, I've had midterms and all that jazz going on for the past week, everything is finally done and I thank you all for being patient! I was working on the next chapter of A Different Rose but was unable to finish it so two new chapters this week for ya'll. Blah blah blah, pun is life and yeah that's just about it. Enjoy your week and pet a dog. They deserve it.


	14. Chapter Eleven

The ceremony had ended and the newly made teams were released. Ruby was rather tense, the brutes eyes has been on her since her name has been called out, and at this point, it was starting to freak her out.

All four were walking through the hallway, heading towards their dorm when Ruby's private scroll began to ring. Everyone turns to Ruby and the girl sighs before picking it up.

"Rose speaking."

Loud cackling sounds from the scroll, causing Ruby to wince as she holds the phone away from her ear. After a few seconds, when the cackling doesn't quiet, Ruby sighs heavily. "Tyrian! Shut the FUCK up." The cackling slows into a drawl and grows quiet, allowing Ruby to place it by her ear. "What do you want? I am kind of in the middle of something."

The cackling starts back up and Ruby removes the scroll from its previous spot and sighs heavily. "Oh ho! The little rose petal has gotten herself a team! At Beacon Academy! Making mommy proud of her little girl?"

The rest of RWBY listens to the conversation, confused before growing scared at the murderous look on Ruby's face. "Callows. Watch your words. Because rose's also have thorns. And don't think that just because you are associated with Mother, that I won't _rip_ that tail of yours off and _hang_ you by it." Ruby reigns in her emotions, mentally scolding herself for losing control in front of her new team. "If you have nothing to report, then this will be all Callows."

Ruby presses the end call button and closes her eyes before opening them. "I apologize. Tyrian works for my mother and sometimes he can really push my buttons."

Yang slowly nods. "Mother?"

Ruby hums and begins walking towards the dorms, quickly going through the lie crafted about her family. "Yes. I was born and raised on the only Island on the Corpus Sea in Mistral. Our settlement was mainly a place for hunters to come and relax whilst fighting easy Grimm, protecting our small town in the process."

Blake raises an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you have an Mistralian accent?"

Ruby shakes her head as she stops in front of their assigned dorm room. "Not really. See most of the people who lived or passed through there were from Vale. So it's only natural that I didn't end up sounding like Pyrrha Nikos."

Ruby enters the room after unlocking it and holds open the door for her teammates, growing confused as she notices Yang walk past her looking glum. With a slight shake of her head, Ruby focuses on the dorm. "Well off to bed. Classes start tomorrow and we don't want to miss that."

Blake is the first one to enter the bathroom, followed by Weiss, Yang, and lastly Ruby who takes the last shower of the night. As she steps out of the bathroom, she looks over her new team and smirks as she finds them fast asleep. The red head crosses the room and crawls under her covers before turning off the remaining lamp, delving the room into darkness where she too joins them in slumber.

The sun peeks through the curtains as Ruby declines against her headboard, tapping away on her scroll.

"Ruby?" Ruby is snapped out of her thoughts and her turns to meet Blake's Amber coloured eyes. "What are you doing up?"

Ruby shrugs. "I'm always up early. Go back to sleep, yesterday was exhausting for everyone."

Blake nods before she lays back down, her quiet breathing showing that Blake is resting peacefully.

The red caped leader turns back towards the window, watching as the sun begins to rise higher into the sky, her scroll long forgotten. Glancing over her teammates, the young leader smiles as she grabs her clothes and heads into the bathroom to shower and change for the day.

After exiting the bathroom, a groggy Blake takes her place, closing the door and locking it behind her.

While waiting for her remaining teammates to wake up and prepare for the day, Ruby focuses on the daily maintenance that comes with keeping Crescent Rose in pristine condition. After finishing the daily task on her weapon, the young leader glances up to find both Blake and Yang to be ready. Only Weiss remains asleep.

With a smirk that can mean nothing good for the heiress, Ruby pulls a whistle from her belongings. Yang grins with mischief twinkling in her eyes while Blake only rolls her eyes.

Sucking in a deep breath of air, Ruby blows I to the whistle as hard as she can.

Weiss lets out a shriek and attempts to jump up. Of course getting tangled in her sheets and falling to the floor.

"Gooooooood morning team RWBY!" Ruby throws her hands in the air.

Weiss looks around in panic before her eyes fall on the three of her teammates in school uniforms. "What in the world is wrong with you?!"

Ruby decides the ignore the question, knowing the answer would be too long. "Now that you're awake, we can officially begin our first order of business."

Weiss slowly untangles herself from the bedsheets before standing. "Excuse me?"

Yang grins, holding multiple random objects within her arms. "Decorating!"

Weiss looks at Yang in confusion, still disoriented from her rude awakening. "What?"

Blake holds up her suitcase. "We still have to unpack." The suitcase opens and the contents spill out. "Aaaaaaand clean."

The shrill of the whistle causes Weiss to jump again, looking even more cranky than before.

Ruby stands in front of the door next to her partner and friend. "Aaaalright! Weiss, Blake, Yang, and their fearless leader Ruby have begun their first mission!" Ruby raises her closed fist in the air. "Banzai!"

Blake and Yang stand next to their leader, following her in the shout of celebration. Weiss continues to glare at the group before sighing heavily. "Let's just get this over with."

Yang can be seen hanging a poster of the Achieve Men where Weiss would rather hang a painted picture of the Forever Fall Forest. Blake is seen placing many of her books into the many shelves around the room and Ruby hangs the curtain above the window. Each person placed their personal belongings in the room, some like Blake and Ruby; have few and far between them belongings wise. The heiress of course having the most.

Ruby begins to notice that things are becoming too cramped and opts to make bunk beds. Everyone but the Schnee agreeing to the practical solution. Once everything has been placed, the team stands back to admire their work.

Blake and Ruby share a pair of bunk beds with books they have little care for inbetween. Something that could potentially be dangerous and unstable, but looking towards Yang's bed that hangs over Weiss'... Yeah they both silently agreed books were the better option over the death trap that could crash into Weiss.

"Wellll… Objective complete! Now our first order of business. Classes!" Ruby pulls out a binder and scans the schedule laid before her. "Ah. It seems we have five minutes to make it to our first class." Ruby slams the binder shut. "We gotta go!"

Today was not the day Ozpin expected to be shoved aside as team RWBY makes their way to classes. A high pitched voice calling back to him. "I'M SORRY PROFESSOR OZPIN!!" Ruby's voice carries as she leads her team towards classes, causing the headmaster to chuckle. She is definitely an odd one.

Professor Port. An elderly man with bushy eyebrows and one hell of a mustache. The two combined keeps anyone from seeing his eyes or mouth. And whenever he talks, the mustache moves, reminding Ruby of a caterpillar. "Monsters! Deeeemons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!"

Silence is met with Port's poorly thought out joke.

Upon noticing the silence met with his joke, Port attempts to make up for the awkwardness surrounding the students. "Uhhhh... And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses…" Port gives Yang a wink, who loudly groans before slamming her forehead into her desk. Blake patting the girls back to offer some form of comfort. "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!"

"Ayyy-yep!" A student stands in the back, upon noticing everyone's stare, they sit down, face red in embarrassment.

Port continues on without missing a beat. "That is what you are training to become. But first: A story. A tale of a young, handsome man... Me! When I was a boy…"

Ruby lays her head on her arms, growing more and more bored from the words of the teacher. She dully questions if she could fall asleep to his horrible stories. Sighing, Ruby refocuses her attention on the professor.

"Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man. 'Peter', he told me…"

Ruby silently groans, deciding it's not worth listening to his stories. She'll just study the material from the book instead. While she has never studied before, she's almost positive she'll learn more that way than through Port's stories.

"In the end, the Beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!" Port takes a deep bow before straightening up. Weiss glances towards her leader and grows annoyed that she refuses to pay attention. "The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!" Weiss glowers at her leader, angry and upset that she would put off her educational duties to doodle! "So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Weiss' hand shoots into the air. "I do, sir!"

"Well, then, let's find out!" Port turns to gesture at the glowing red eyes surrounded by shadow shaking the cage that traps it. "Step forward, and face your opponent!"

The cage rattles again as the beast inside grows more irritated at the prospect of being caged.

Weiss smirks confidentiality and stands before the rattling cage, her modified rapier in her hand.

Yang raises her fist. "Go Weiss!"

"Fight well." Blake waves a small flag that says RWBY on it.

Ruby fist pumps the air. "Yeah, represent teeeeeeeaaaaam RWBY!"

Weiss growls in irritation and looks over to her leader. "Ruby! I'm trying to focus!"

Ruby lowers her hand and looks rather crestfallen. "O-oh. Sorry Weiss."

Port cuts in. "Aallllllright!" He pulls out his axe. "Let the match begin!"

The professor swings down and breaks the lock, dropping the cage door and revealing the Boarbatusk inside, which immediately charges at Weiss. She uses Myrtenaster to deflect its attack and roll to the side, readying herself for its next move. The Grimm stands a distance away from its enemy, studying her.

"Ha-ha! Wasn't expecting that were you?" Port comments.

"Hang in there Weiss!" Ruby calls out, hoping her teammates doesn't get injured.

Weiss is now speeding towards the oncoming Boarbatusk, sticking her blade straight at its skull until they meet and Myrtenaster is trapped in the beast's tusks. Weiss is still hanging on to the hilt, and is tossed around as she struggles to get the rapier back.

Port raises his eyebrows, not enough for his eyes to show of course. "Bold new approach! I like that."

Ruby continues to cheer the heiress on from the sidelines. "Come on, Weiss, show it who's boss."

Weiss turns to glare at Ruby, only for the Boarbatusk to turn its head and rip the sword from her grip. Myrtenaster lands far away from its master, who is knocked back by the creature's tusks.

Port continues to watch the fight progress. "Oh-ho! Now what will you do without your weapon?"

Weiss looks up just in time to see the Boarbatusk charge again, rolling out of the way just in time to avoid getting trampled and make it crash into a desk. Weiss rushes at her sword and slides to get it back in her hand.

Ruby's eyes widen and she slams her hands on the desk. "Weiss! Go for is belly! There's no armour underneath!"

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss shouts back, growing more frustrated with the childish girl.

Ruby looks hurt at Weiss' rebuttal. Meanwhile, the Boarbatusk leaps into the air and rolls into a ball, spinning rapidly in the air and landing on the ground, consistently gaining speed until it launches itself at Weiss. It comes closer and closer, but Weiss activates one of her blue-white circles and blocks the roll, leaping up into the now-black snowflake symbol and turning it blue again so she can drive the blade into the Boarbatusk's stomach. It squeals and falls silent while Weiss gasps in relief.

"Bravo! Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!" Port walks towards Weiss and slaps the girl on the back. "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and... stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

Weiss glares and turns away, walking hurriedly to the exit past her teammates.

Jaune watches the girl stomp off. "Sheesh. What's with her?"

Ruby watches the heiress walk off, her hand twitching to pull out her weapon and shoot the heiress. Ruby closes her eyes and breathes in deeply. 'Can't kill here. Even if the subordinate is being stupid.' Ruby breathes out and goes to chase after Weiss.


	15. Chapter Twelve

Ruby races out the door to catch up with the heiress. "Weiss!"

Weiss halts and turns around to come face to face with her team leader. "What?" Her voice is harsh, causing Ruby to flinch at the venom within.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you being-?" Ruby is cut off by Weiss before she can finish.

Weiss scoffs loudly. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You're supposed to be a leader, and all you've been so far is a nuisance!"

Ruby blinks in shock. "What did I do?" Her own temper begins to rise in course with the Ice Queen's.

"That's just it - you've done nothing to earn your position! Back in the forest, you acted like a child, and you've only continued to do so!" Weiss glares at the smaller girl before her.

Ruby clenches her fists. "Weiss, where is this coming from? What happened to all the talk about 'working together'? I thought you believed in acting as a team."

"Not a team led by you. I've studied and trained. And quite frankly, I deserve better." Weiss turns her back on the girl. "Ozpin made a mistake." The heiress begins to walk off until she's stopped by someone grabbing her arm and spinning her around.

"You know nothing about me Weiss! And you know nothing about leading a team!" Ruby holds up a hand to stop Weiss from talking. "If you had to lead your team into an imminent death, could you? Even if it meant saving hundreds of not thousands of lives. Could you watch your teammates fall knowing you lead them to their death?!" Ruby releases Weiss' arm. "Because that's my responsibility now. And you think you can handle that, then by all means, become team leader." Ruby spins on her heel and stomps off. "I'll see you at the dorms."

Weiss watches as her teammate storms off, thoughts of what she said clouding the heiress mind.

Ruby sits on her bed, multiple textbooks and notes from the day surrounding her. She of course had been right in her earlier prediction that she learned more from the book than Port's stories.

But that was a given.

Glancing up from the books, Ruby finds her partner and teammates in different states of sleep. After Weiss apologised to the red head, she left Ruby alone to study.

Yang lets out a particularly loud snore causing Ruby to glance up at the blonde brute who mumbles before turning in her sleep.

Ruby's scroll buzzes, capturing her attention as she looks at the message. Closing her scroll and pocketing it, Ruby grabs her weapon and exits the dorm in complete silence. Once out, she bursts into rose petals and takes off through Beacon Academy. Catching a late bound airbus to Vale, Ruby makes her way to the docks before entering her base of operations.

White Fang grunts move crates around, ignoring the small girl in red as she moves deeper into the warehouse.

"Roman..." Ruby leaves behind the high pitched and innocent sounding voice she uses in Beacon. "You have done a marvellous job. I'm impressed."

Roman jumps and glances towards his boss, a smirk full of pride on his face. "Well of course. With them working for me, I've been able to nab dust left and right. Much better than Junior's goons."

Ruby smirks and pulls a letter from her pocket. "Give this to Cinder for me dear. I would greatly appreciate it. Also.." Ruby looks around at the crates. "I think you will get a raise. Keep up the good work Roman."

Ruby saunters through the warehouse, a smirk growing on her face as she exits into the dark of night.

The Beowulf snarls, jaw about to swallow the young child in red. Shaking, she clutches onto her mother, wishing for her to wake up and save her.

"Stop!" A smooth voice sounds out through the forest, the snarling stopping and the Beowulf freezing in place.

Red eyes surround by a see of black meet Ruby's own silver eyes. The eyes flick over the body of Summer Rose and lets out a soft sigh. "I see I was too late." The strange person walks towards Ruby before kneeling next to Summer. "May the Ancient Ones guide you into the realms of Valhalla so that you may sit among the warriors of olden times before you. You fought bravely Summer Rose."

Ruby sniffles. "W-Who are you? H-How do you know my mom?"

The red eyed thing looks towards Ruby and smiles softly. "I am a friend Ruby Rose. I was supposed to save both your mother and you. But it appears I'm too late for Summer."

Ruby clutches her knees as her eyes are downcast. "Hunters did this… They… They are supposed to be the good guys… But they are the meanies and.. and…" Ruby starts to cry once again.

The woman picks up Ruby and strokes her hair. "Come now Ruby. I must take you to safety where you can grow strong and avenge your mother."

Ruby nods and looks up into the red eyes, sadness and hurt turning her silver eyes a dull grey colour. "W-What's your name?"

The woman smiles. "Salem…"

A change is coming...

Jaune hangs his head and closes the door, just as a certain red head walks up.

"Hey Jaune!" Startled, the blonde looks to see the Rose team leader in her pyjamas. "Long time, no see! Did you lock yourself out again?" While Ruby knows she's playing dumb, she knows just how far Cardin's reach is over the blonde leader.

"Oh. Uh Nope!" Jaune sheepishly raises his scroll.

"Got it!"

Ruby rocks on her feet. "So! Where have you been lately?"

Jaune hangs his head. "I Uh... I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have, and now Cardin has me on a leash, and Pyrrha won't even talk to me, and..." Jaune breathes heavily through his nose. "I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea." Jaune turns around and slides down the wall. "I'm a failure."

"Nope!"

Ruby's voice cuts Jaune from his depressive thoughts. "Nope?"

Ruby nods. "Nope! You're a leader now, Jaune. You're not allowed to be a failure."

"But... what if I'm a failure at being a leader?" Jaune Looks up at the younger girl, confused by her logic.

Ruby pauses for a few moments before answering.

"Nope!"

Jaune laughs as the Rose joins him in the floor. "You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff."

Ruby chuckles. "Nope! Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid..." Juane sinks into the ground with a groan. ".. and you might've even been a failure the first day we met!" He sinks even lower at her blunt words. "But, you can't be one now. Because it's not just about you anymore. You've got a team now, Jaune. We both do! And if we fail, then we'll just be bringing them down with us." Ruby stands up and puts her hands on her hips. "We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader, Jaune. And I think that can be you." She gives him a smile before walking over to her door and opening it.

"Have a good night Jaune!" Ruby closes the door behind her before heading up into her bed.

Yang glances up from her scroll. "Heya Rubes! Apparently my dad and uncle are gonna visit for the tournament! I can't wait!"

Ruby chuckles at Yang's enthusiasm. "That's great Yang."

Yang nods. "What about you? Any family? Aside from your mom?"

Ruby nods. "Yeah but they will be in the tournament. My brother and sisters from Haven. Ruby can almost feel Cinder scowl at the thought of having to pretend to be family. A soft chuckle escapes her, causing her teammates to look at her oddly. "You'll like one in particular Yang. After all she enjoys fire just as much as you."

Yang's lilac eyes light up at the prospect of someone else who enjoys fire. "Awesome! I'll have to battle her and see who is the best!" Yang punches the air before relaxing into her bed. "I can't wait for the tournament."

Ruby can't either, but for massively different reasons.


	16. Chapter Thirteen

Team RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL follow behind Goodwitch as she leads them through the Forever Fall forest. Red leaves falling as the wind blows through the branches. Grey trunks standing out from the red everything.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Glynda watches as the group stops before her before they pass out jars.

Ruby leads her team away from the path and towards a cluster of trees to collect sap. She of course doesn't miss the glances Jaune throws back towards his team as he follows CRDL.

Shaking her head, Ruby begins to collect sap alongside her teammates and friends. Slowly they finish, all except for Nora and Ren as the former continues to eat all the sap before Ren can collect an entire jars worth.

A roar sounds through the forest, causing Ruby to glance in the direction it came from in worry. "Did you guys hear that?" Ruby gets to her feet, hand resting against the cool metal of her weapon.

Russel, Dove, and Lark run past the group without their leader. "Ursa! Ursa!" Russel trips and crashes into Yang.

Yang remains completely unfazed after the collision. She grabs the boys shirt and lifts him up. "Where?"

Russel struggles in her grip. "Back there! It's got Cardin!"

Pyrrha drops her sap. "Jaune!"

Ruby looks to Yang and Blake. "Yang! You and Blake go get Goodwitch! Ren and Nora, follow them and keep together."

The four comply and race off in the direction Glynda was last seen.

Ruby motions for Pyrrha and Weiss to follow her as they take off towards Jaune and Cardin.

Another roar sounds from their left and Ruby pulls out her scythe. "You guys help Jaune! I'll take care of this!"

Pyrrha and Weiss nod, continuing their race against time to get to the blonde leader.

Ruby twirls the scythe around her body at expert speeds, that makes the very heavy scythe lighter than it seems. An Ursa Major makes itself known. The bone plating thicker than a regular Ursa's not to mention the amount of spikes covering its back. "I have needed to unleash some pent up anger lately."

Ruby slams her scythe into the ground, the blade piercing the earth as she pulls back the bolt on her rifle. A smirk covers her face at the sound of a bullet being loaded. She begins to rapidly fire, loading and reloading, causing bullet casing to fall to the ground as she launches shot after shot into the beast as it begins to charge her. As it leaps towards her, she disappears into petals before reforming above the Ursa Major. The blade of her scythe points up, changing from a regular scythe into a farm scythe as she allows gravity to take over. The blade pierces it's skull, causing the Grimm to go limp and begins to disappear into rose petals that will too disappear in time.

Twirling her scythe around her, she places it at her waist as JNPR and WBY run up towards her, followed by a very concerned Professor Goodwitch.

Ruby gives a small smile and waves at her friends and teammates before she will be lectured by the professor.

After being given detention and extra work, RWBY is finally off the hook from the incident in Forever Fall Forest a few days ago. The team has decided to take their free time and explore Vale.

Weiss stops and looks at the decorations being put up for the Vytal Festival. "The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!"

Yang grins and elbows the heiress. "I can't wait to fight in the tournament and win. After all it's... Vytal to my existence."

Groans ring out from her teammates, causing Yang to grin wider.

Ruby shakes herself off from the horrible pun. "I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss." Ruby pauses. "It's kind of weirding me out..."

Weiss throws her arms in the air again. "How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking."

Yang sighs and crosses her arms in front of her chest. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring."

Weiss points a finger in Yang's face. "Quiet you!" The heiress spins on her heels and marches off. Leading the group towards the docks.

As they stop near the docks, Yang speaks up. "Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?"

Blake looks up from her book. "Because Weiss wants to spy on the competitors for the tournament."

Weiss stomps her foot. "I do not!" She pouts and crosses her arms. "I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom!" Weiss points towards Blake. "And you can't prove that Belladonna."

Ruby turns her head. "Whoa." The team looks at a shattered window down the street and a door full of yellow caution tape of the Vale Police Force before walking over to the detective in front, who is writing on his pad. "What happened here?"

"Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle." The first detective walks over to his partner.

Yang sighs sadly. "That's terrible."

"They left all the money again." Someone calls out from inside the shop.

Ruby turns her head when she hears this. "Huh?"

The first detective scratches his head. "Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?"

"I don't know, an army?"

"You thinking the White Fang?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."

"Hmph! The White Fang." Weiss crosses her arms and pointing her nose in the air with her eyes closed. "What an awful bunch of degenerates!"

Blake looks down at the heiress, irritation evident. "What's your problem?"

Weiss turns to Blake. "My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."

"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. Blake crosses her arms, growing serious. "They're a collection of misguided Faunus."

Weiss raises an eyebrow. "Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!"

Blake rolls her eyes. "So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!"

Ruby nods and scratches her chin. "Hmm... Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... Maybe it was him."

Weiss scoffs."That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

Yang shakes her head. "That's not necessarily true..."

"Hey, stop that Faunus!" Someone cries out.

As the team overhears the cry for help and rush over to investigate, a Faunus with a golden monkey tail named Sun Wukong is seen running down the length of the boat and leaping on to the edge as the two sailors are about to apprehend him.

Sun looks back towards his pursuers. "Thanks for the ride guys." He jumps off the ship and hits the deck running.

A sailor chases after him, stopping at the railing. "You no good stowaway!"

Sun clambers up a lamp post and begins to peel his banana. "Hey if I was a no good stowaway, I would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway."

One of the detectives from early throws a rock up at Sun. "Hey! Get down from there!"

Sun drops the banana peel on the detective's face, who growls in return. The monkey-like Faunus twirls up to crouch on the lamppost, laughs in amusement, and proceeds to leap off and run away from the detectives. As he runs past Team RWBY, he winks at an astonished Blake in slow motion before time speeds up again and he continues to be chased by the officers.

Yang watches the monkey Faunus run off. "Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes..."

Weiss points a finger after the male. "Quick! We have to observe him!"

Weiss, Yang, and Ruby give chase. Blake stands still, lost in thought, then comes back to reality and follows her friends. The team rounds the next corner, but then Weiss bumps into someone and trips. She looks up only to see Sun jump on to a building and disappear from her view.

"No! He got away!" Weiss pouts.

Ruby spots a familiar mop of grey hair. Slinking away from her teammates, Ruby makes a break towards them. "Mercury!"

The male, Mercury stops and glances back to see Ruby racing towards him. She disappears into rose petals and reappear in front of him, kicking the male away. He got flying down an alley and lands in a pile of trash. Ruby's Silver eyes met the red eyes of another ally. Emerald.

Emerald and Mercury are both pawns of Cinder Fall. Both are thieves and Mercury a murderer.

Ruby bows her head slightly towards Emerald. "Nice to see you again. Didn't realise you were arriving today."

Emerald blushes at the close proximity to her boss, backing up a bit. "Oh uh. Yeah. Cinder asked to come and help. But are kind of lost."

Ruby nods and marches down the alley before slinging Mercury over her shoulder. "Follow me."

Emerald raises an eyebrow. "What about your team?"

Ruby shrugs. "They'll be fine. Let's get you settled in."

Emerald follows Ruby through the city and back towards the docks, leading her into a warehouse where she finds White Fang grunts to be moving crates of dust around and organising it. Ruby dumps Mercury on the floor and marches through the warehouse to find Cinder.

Only to find her next to a red haired male with horns. Adam Taurus.

Adam slams his hand on the table. "Damn that Belladonna! She was a valuable asset to us but now she has deserted us."

Ruby raises an eyebrow at the last name, fairly certain Blake once claimed to not have any family. Shaking herself from her thoughts, Ruby approaches the two. "Adam. Cinder. I believe we have much to discuss."

Adam glances towards the Rose and sneers, boy follows her nonetheless. After all negotiations still need to be made between the three.


	17. Chapter Fourteen

Blake lays on top of a large crate, watching the Schnee's dust shipment sit in the darkness

Sun lands in a crouch next to Blake, handing her an apple. "I stole you some food."

Blake glances back at him. "Do you always break the law without a second thought?"

Sun shrugs. "Weren't you in a cult or something?" At Blake's glare, he holds his hands up in surrender. "Okay... Too soon."

 _The White Fang. An organization for Faunus to attempt and gain equal rights in the many kingdoms world wide. But things have changed. Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and the Faunus._

 _Of course, despite being promised equality, the Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as a voice of all Faunus._

 _Everything from boycotts, to rallies, many thought they were making a difference. The symbol of the White Fang, the blue flag of a white wolf with sad eyes and a circle behind its head was soon lowered and replaced with a red monster with three bloody scratches and teeth bared at the world. The old leader stepped down, and a new one took his place._

 _A new leader, with a new way of thinking._

 _Faunus begin to replace picket signs with axes and blades in a new form of attempting to gain equality. Peaceful protests changed to organised attacks. They set fire to shops that refused to serve them, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. The worst part is, it was working. They were being treated equal, but not out of respect. But out of fear._

The wind whips around the two, Bullhead's searchlights flashing around for a landing spot, descending in the middle of the cargo containers and extending a ramp for a black hooded individual with a metallic fanged mask to come out of.

Blake watches in sorrow. "Oh no..."

Sun looks towards the cat Faunus. "Is that them?"

Blake watches as one turns around and the bloody wolf is painted on the back of the armour. "It's them."

Commands are passed around the White Fang members and they begin to set to work.

Sun clicks his tongue. "You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?"

Blake shakes her head. "No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right."

A new voice sounds from the group, to reveal Roman Torchwick exiting the Bullhead. "What's the hold up? We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

Someone else exits the ship and pats Roman's shoulder. "Now now Roman. They are our equals after all. Wouldn't want to offend them because you know I will let them kick your ass." A low and smooth voice sounds through Blake's ears, setting her on edge as she examines this new person.

A black cloak hides her form, only a lower face mask covers the bottom half of her face, steel grey eyes examining the area. Reminding Blake of someone.

Ruby stands next to Roman in her new clothes, unsure of whether or not someone is actually hiding in the shadows as they work. But Ruby has to be sure nothing goes wrong. After all, this is the largest dust shipment they will steal.

Sun watches everyone move, gathering creates and moving it to the bullhead. "Aren't we gonna stop them?"

Blake shakes her head. "That human female. Can't you feel it? The power, the strength she has... She wouldn't hesitate to kill us... We need to call the police for this. There's no way the two of us can stop her, let alone Torchwick."

Blake continues to watch this female, fear shooting through every part of her body, causing her hair to rise. Every instinct telling her to run from this woman before her.

Something isn't right...

By the time the police arrive on the scene, the bullheads are long gone. Sun of course takes off, knowing things will be worse with him being a Faunus where as Blake can hide her heritage.

Yang and Weiss show up, and apologies are passed around before Yang speaks up. "Have you seen Ruby at all lately? We noticed she didn't return to the dorm. In fact I haven't seen her since Penny."

Blake shakes her head. "No... I haven't at all."

Weiss sighs heavily and pulls out her scroll and pulls up her leaders contact info before calling her. The scroll beeps before going straight to Ruby's set voicemail. Weiss hangs up and furrows her eyebrows. "What are you doing Ruby..."

Yang and Blake both share worried glances before huddling around Weiss as she taps around in her scroll. "We can track her Scrolls last known location. Pity we couldn't do that to you Blake after you left your scroll at the dorm." Weiss taps a few more things before a 2D map of Vale pops up showing three other red dots. Blake's is at Beacom, Yang's in on her person, and Ruby's is revealed to be on the more abandoned side of town.

The three all share the same look and quickly take off towards the little red dot. Regular city life slowly becomes more sketchy, Yang is positive she saw a few of Junior's goons creeping around alleyways as they ran past.

The group skids to a halt as someone is kicked out an alley farther up ahead, farther than from where Ruby's scroll was last. A red blur flies out fo the alleyway and Ruby is seen crouched over the man, her entire form screaming murder. "I heard what you did to that poor little mouse Faunus."

The man whimpers under her grasp. "Y-You should understand! She was just a Faunus! A filthy animal!"

Ruby tilts her head, her white teeth gleaming. "A filthy animal? I see. I see."

The man seems to relax and Blake tenses up at the words that fall from her leaders lips.

Ruby leans closer, pupils blown wide. "It doesn't matter if she were a Faunus or a human." Ruby pulls out a small blade and drags it over the mans right cheek, causing him to cry out. "You killed her. After sexually assaulting her and then you mutilatated the body and dumped it."

Two more people walk out of they alleyway, one with mint green hair and another with grey hair. The mint haired girl glances towards the remainder of RWBY and sighs before walking towards Ruby. "Ruby. Calm down."

The red head snarls and lashes out at Emerald causes the other girl to frown in disdain. "Oh my Oum everytime." Emerald walks towards the confused Ruby and hits her over the head, knocking the other girl unconscious. She then hefts the smaller girl into her arms and walks towards RWBY. "I take it your her teammates?"

Yang nods and accepts Ruby from the other girl. "Who are you? What was she doing out here?"

Emerald smiles. "I'm her sister. Ruby found us over the weekend and spent it with us. We received news that he-" Emerald jerks her thumb towards the downed man. "- hurt one of our long time friends and killed her. Understandably, Ruby was far more upset when the police didn't investigate further and charge the man."

Blake looks over at the man and narrows her eyes. The male steps in front of her line of sight, confusing her slightly.

Emerald smiles softly. "Sorry but we best be going." Emerald turns towards the gray haired boy. "Grab him. We'll toss him in a dumpster or something."

The man huffs and grabs the unconscious man Ruby beat up, and the two walk down the street, leaving team RWBY to their thoughts.

It's been about a week since the events transpired on the street. Ruby gave the same story that Emerald gave, explaining how the man killed a friend.

Well of course that was only partially true. Said man in fact had killed the one person who had orders from Sienna Khan for the White Fang. This of course has pushed things back a great deal while Taurus waits for his leaders response once again. It's understandable as to why the young Rose was upset with the murderer.

Team RWBY are sitting together as Blake looks over some notes. Yang then slides up next to her partner. "Whatcha doing?"

"Nothing." Blake closes her book. "Just going over notes from last semester."

Yang catches a grape in her mouth. "Lame."

Nora giggles as she continues to toss grapes at yang with her spoon. Yang catches the fruit with ease, giving Nora the thumbs up. Ruby, giving an enormous heave, slams a binder onto the table, catching everyone off guard. On the cover of the binder is written "Vytal Festival Activities, Property of Weiss Schnee". This has been hastily crossed out with a red marker pen, and with the same pen, a new title, "Best Day Ever Activities", has been written underneath.

Ruby clears her throat and gestures to everyone at the table. "Sisters... friends... Weiss."

"Hey!" Weiss lets out an offended screech.

Ruby ignores the heiress. "Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream."

"This ought to be good." Yang catches another berry in her mouth.

Ruby continues. "A dream that one day, the four of us will come together, as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... ever!" Ruby fist pumps the air.

Weiss looks over the top of the binder and scowls. "Did you steal my binder?"

Ruby makes "peace" signs with both hands. "I am not a crook."

Blake raises an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" The younger girl points her finger at Blake.

Yang grins wickedly as she replies to Ruby. "I always kick my semesters off with a Yang! Eh? Guys? Am I right?"

An apple is tossed at yang and hits her in the face. The blonde glares at Nora.

Nora's booing is heard from the other table across from them.

Ruby let's out an exasperated sigh. "Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But, classes start back up tomorrow! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today".

"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store." The heiress picks at her food, glancing up at the red leader.

Yang, still glaring, picks up an apple and tosses it across the room. An unfamiliar voice shouts "Hey!" and Nora can be heard giggling.

The at Faunus sighs. "I don't know. I think I might sit this one out."

Weiss looks towards the brooding Faunus. "Sit out or not, I think that however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team!"

Nora shouts rather loudly. "I got it!"

Weiss stands up. "I for one think that..." Weiss is interrupted by a pie landing on her face.

Nora is seen to be the one who threw the pie, she sits down and points at Ren who has his head in his palm. Pyrrha's hand is over her mouth and Jaune simply sits staring wide-eyed while covering his ear with his palm.

Outside the cafeteria, the blonde monkey Faunus walks around the large building. "And she's a Faunus!" Sun glances around. "But that's a secret, okay?"

Neptune, a blue haired male with goggles on his head nods. "Got it."

Sun leans in closer and narrows his eyes. "And not a, "I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back secret", I'm talking secret secret."

Neptune holds up his hands in surrender. "Whoa, chill out, man, okay? I got it."

Sun nods, satisfied. "You better."

The two students walk past a large window, and seconds after Jaune goes flying and hits the window before sliding to the ground.

Going back inside the lunchroom, students begin to make a break for the doors as a food fight breaks out between RWBY and JNPR.

Jaune stumbles to his feet and makes his way back towards his teammates. Nora is seen standing on top a bunch of precariously balances tables. She laughter sounding manicanical. "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

Ruby stomps a foot on a table and points towards team JNPR. "Justice will be swift. Justice will be painful!" Ruby crushes a carton of milk in her hands. "It will be delicious!"

Team RWBY raises their fists and lets out a war cry.

Nora cackles and points down towards the girls.

"Off with their heads!" Nora jumps down from her tower, signalling the food fight to begin.

Ruby glances around before grinning. "Yang! Turkey!"

Yang rolls over to the turkeys and sticks her fists inside them. Team JNPR begin to kick or throw watermelons towards the blonde who punches them away. Yang backflips as a watermelon makes it passed her defences before continuing forward.

Blake flips over the blonde and grabs two baguettes, pushing her aura into them to destroy two more melons and ducking as Yang jumps over her and kicks another. Yang launches the two turkeys from her fists, causing Pyrrha to duck to the side as the turkeys slam into a Jaune, knocking him back. Pyrrha picks up her own baguette, pushing her aura through it to make the bread stronger, blocking just as Blake attempts to hit her with her own food weapons.

Pyrrha steps back and attempts to hit Blake, only to have her bread pass through a shadow clone as Blake flips over her. Pyrrha flips back, sending a kick Blake's way, only to watch as Blake flips into the air again and throws one of her baguettes towards Pyrrha. Pyrrha dodges and rushes towards Blake before she can touch the ground and hits the girl with her makeshift sword, sending the cat Faunus back.

Pyrrha picks up more bread and begins to throw them like spears towards Yang who punches and kicks them apart, only to be knocked backwards as one manages to hit her.

Ruby leaps into the air and slides across the tables on a lunch tray, dodges bread that comes her way. Jumping up, she deflects one of the baguettes back towards Pyrrha who has to roll away to avoid being struck. Only for her to stand up and be hit by Ruby's lunch tray, knocking her back.

Ruby flips around Weiss who holds a ketchup bottle in her hands. Ren and Nora racing towards the White Rose pair. Weiss releases a torrent of ketchup, causing Ren to slip and knock into tables like a bowling ball. Nora jumps up the flying tables and grabs an empty flag pole from the wall, breaking it off easily. She swings it around herself a few time before sticking an end through a watermelon. She rolls forward and goes to hit Weiss, only for Weiss to be protected by Ruby who goes flying back.

Weiss rolls to the side, picking up a sword fish and holding it in the same manner as her rapier. She races towards Nora, knocking the girl back, only to watch as Nora regains her sense. The orange haired girl races toward the heiress and begins to swing her makeshift hammer around before managing to get a lucky shot in that sends Weiss sailing to the other side of the cafeteria, bowling through tables before hitting one of the many pillars.

Ruby activated her semblance and catches the heiress before the pillar falls on her, holding the semi conscious girl in her arms. "Weiss! Weiss! Don't leave me! Nooooo!" The pillar falls, launching table and food debris everywhere.

Yang races passed the two and leaps into the air and sticks her hands into another pair of turkeys, running towards Ren who picks up a pair of leeks. Yang throws a kick as she gets closer, only to be blocked by the vegetable. The two state each other down for a second before Yang attempts to kick and punch him, missing each time. Finally she slips passed his defences and lands a few punches before punching Ren into the air. Ren attempts to throw the leaks at Yang, only for the blode to jump up and punch him backwards the ground. A shockwave going out as tables and dishes fly away from where he lands.

Nora slams her hammer into the ground, causing Yang to jump back. The two then race towards each other, hoping to land the first hit. Nora swings her hammer upwards and connects with Yang's body first. Sending the blonde brute through the ceiling.

Blake has to leap backwards to avoid the concrete that falls, on the way back, she grabs onto a large string of sausages. Twirling the sausages around her body, she hits Nora, sending her back into a vending a machine. Causing multiple cans of soda to fall to the ground.

Nora rolls forward and begins to throw the cans of soda, grinning as they explode upon impact. Pyrrha activates her semblance, controlling the metal of the cans and launching them towards Blake, causing the girl to be thrown backwards, now low on aura.

Ruby stands up, her face growing serious as she looks towards JNPR. Getting into a runners crouch, she begins to run as fast as she can, activating her semblance. She quickly becomes a mass of rose petals racing towards JNPR, changing course of the food, and causing it to follow Ruby's path. Team JNPR is swept up as Ruby passes them and Ruby stops at the other side of the cafeteria, the wall cracking behind her before she leaps into the air to avoid the food that begins to pelt JNPR's bodies as they too connect with the wall.

Ruby lands before the now food covered team as they slip and fall to the floor.

The doors to the cafeteria burst open and Glynda Goodwitch steps through with a growl. Stopping some food that flies her way, she uses her semblance to quickly set the cafeteria back in order. An amazing spectacle unfolds as everything flies in the air before and sets itself down. "Children please. Do not play with your food." Glynda fixes her glasses.

Ren takes a seat while his teammates opt to stand. Ruby sits on the actual table herself with Weiss standing on the same table, Blake on the floor.

Nora lets out a loud belch, causing both teams to stare in shock and amazement. The ceiling cracks and Yang yells as she falls through, smashing into one of the tables. The rest of team RWBY evading the blondes fall.


	18. Chapter Fifteen

Ruby hums as she glances over her cards, calculating every possible plan before she looks towards the blonde. "Hmmmmm... All right... All right! Yang Xiao Long, prepare your kingdom for battle!"

Yang gasps loudly as she points to the Rose. "You fiend!"

"And since Atlas is part of Mantle, my repair time is only one turn."

Yang cackles loudly and raises a card. "Pretty sneaky, but you just activated my trap card!" Yang reveals the card. "Giant Nevermore! If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

Ruby points at Yang. "But, if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!"

"Nooooo!!! My fearless soldiers!"

"Eh, most of them were probably androids."

"Goodbye my friends, you will be avenged."

Yang cackles, her laughter sounded even more wicked. "Not until I draw my rewards! Which are double this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route!""Bah!"

Nora lets out a rather loud snore that all ignore. "Oh. Have pancakes."

The blonde holds up her cards. "Oh, and what's this? The Smugglers of Wind Path?"Pyrrha clears her throat and then confiscates a comic book Jaune is reading, trading it for a textbook.Ruby shakes her fist towards Yang. "Bah! Bah, I say!"

"I say, it looks like I'm taking two cards in my hand!"

As Pyrrha reads Jaune's comic, a Nevermore player piece is tossed over Jaune's shoulder. Another piece bounces off of his head."Have you no heart?!" Ruby collapses on the table, groaning loudly. "Nooo!"

Yang turns towards Weiss, a proud grin on her face. "Well, Weiss, it's your turn."

Weiss only blinks as she looks over her cards. "I have... absolutely no idea what's going on."Yang slides up beside her and puts her hand on her shoulder. "Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus."

Weiss scoffs. "That sounds dumb."

Yang starts looking through Weiss' cards. "See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... Oh, oh!" The blonde pulls up a card. "Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet—"

Ruby begins crying. "Nooo!"

Yang continues, ignoring her leaders tears. " —and put it in your hand!"

Weiss nods slowly. "Okay."

"And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!" Yang points a finger at Weiss. "Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war." She pulls away and returns to her seat.

"And that means…"

Ruby wipes at her tears, a frown on her face. "You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!"

Weiss stands and a thunder clap accompanies Weiss' overjoyed psychotic laughter. "Y-yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms!"

Yang giggles, startling the heiress. "Trap card…"

"Huh?"

Yang shuffles the pieces on the board, Weiss' pieces disappearing. "Your armies have been destroyed."

Weiss slumps in her chair and cries. "I hate this game of emotions we play."

Ruby hops into Weiss' lap. "Stay strong, Weiss! We'll make it through this together!"

"Shut up!" The heiress hugs Ruby. "Don't touch me!"

Yang puts her arms up behind her head. "Alright Blake, you're up!"

Blake looks up, having been distracted from her thoughts. "Oh, um, sorry, what am I doing?"

"You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the Kingdoms of Remnant!"

Blake nods slowly, still rather confused. "Right."

Yang giggles. "Uhh, you attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago." Weiss makes an annoyed sound.

"Bring it on, Ice Queen! I'll have you know that I have been told that I am a natural born leader!"

Weiss raises an eyebrow. "By who? Your mother?"

Jaune waves his arms about. "A-and Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha waves from the other table at hearing her name. "Hello again!"

Jaune begins to beg with both hands folded together. "Come on, let me play your hand for a turn!"

Weiss scowls and clutches her cards to her chest. "I'm not trusting you with the good citizens of Vacuo!"

"Why not? You've trusted me with way more important stuff before. I mean, you told us all that Blake is secretly a Fa-"

Pyrrha darts over with inhuman speed and slaps a hand over Jaune's mouth. "Fun-loving person, whom we all admire and respect." Jaune laughs nervously from behind the red heads hand.

Everyone looks nervously at Blake who looks obviously annoyed that her secret is out."Right. That. Ladies, enjoy your battle." Jaune bows as Pyrrha walks away. Footsteps are heard approaching them and the two teams look up.

"'Sup losers." Sun holds his fingers in a "peace" sign.Ruby waves, grateful for a distraction from the rather traumatic game she's playing. "Hey Sun!"Sun grins. "Ruby, Yang, Blake... Ice Queen."

Weiss huffs loudly. "Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

"I never got a chance to formally introduce you to my old friend." Sun points to the blue haired boy next to him.

The blue haired boy raises an eyebrow. "Uhh, aren't libraries for reading?"

Ren throws his arms in the air. "Thank you!"

Nora jumps, suddenly awake by her partners shout. "Pancakes!"

Sun slowly looks away from the excitable Hammer wielder. "Shut up. Don't be a nerd."

"Geh, geh, geh, geh! "Intellectual", okay? Thank you." The boy then turns to the group. "I'm Neptune."

Weiss quickly becomes enamored by the blue haired man. "So Neptune, where are you from?"

"Haven." Neptune approaches the heiress. "And I don't believe I've caught your name, snow angel."

A light blush crosses Weiss' face. "Um, I'm Weiss."

Jaune throws his arms in the air while Ren pats his leaders back. "Are you kidding me!?"

Neptune smirks. "Pleasure to meet you."

Sun looks to Blake. "I never took you as the board game playing type."

Blake shoves Sun aside and begins to leave. "Right, well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later."

Nora shrugs. "Women."


	19. Chapter Sixteen

Team RWBY enters their dorm room.Yang sighs, her form slouched in defeat. "Ugh, we should have never let him play!"

Ruby smirks and punches Yang's arm. "You're just mad cuz' the new guy beat you! See, if you had just attacked when I told you none of this would have happened."

As they enter, Blake approaches the door to leave."Stop." Weiss points at Blake. Blake's hand retracts from the door knob. "Lately you've been quiet, antisocial and moody!"

Yang raises an eyebrow. "Uh, have you met Blake?"

Weiss rolls her eyes. "Which I get is kind of your thing, but you've been doing it more than usual! Which quite frankly, is unacceptable! You made a promise to me, to all of us, that you would let us know if something was wrong! So, Blake Belladonna, what is wrong!?" She points her finger at Blake again.

Weiss is balancing precariously on a chair's back feet. She quickly puts the chair away and returns to stand near the girls."I just, I don't understand how everyone can be so calm." Blake slouches.

Ruby approaches the cat Faunus. "You're still thinking about Torchwick?"

Blake nods. "Torchwick, the White Fang, all of it! Something big is happening and no one is doing anything about it!"

Yang hums softly. "Ozpin told us not to worry. Between the police and the Huntsmen, I'm sure they can handle it."

Blake snaps her head up. "Well I'm not! They don't know the White Fang like I do!"

Weiss holds her hands out, in an attempt to keep the peace. "Okay, between blowing up nightclubs, stopping thieves, and fighting for freedom, I'm sure the three of you think that you're all ready to go out and apprehend these ne'er-do-wells!"

Ruby blinks, confusion seeping into her voice. "Uh, who?"

Weiss continues on, ignoring everyone. "But let me once again be the voice of reason. We're students! We're not ready to handle this sort of situation!"

The young Rose nods slowly. "Well yeah, but…"

Weiss holds up her hand to silence Ruby before continuing. "We're not ready!"

Blake growls and glares at the heiress. " And we may never be ready! Our enemies aren't just going to sit around and wait for graduation day. They're out there, somewhere, planning their next move, and none of us know what it is, but it's coming! Whether we're ready or not!"

Ruby raises her hand and does other random gestures, while looking manic. "Okay, all in favor of becoming the youngest Huntresses to single-handedly taking down a corrupt organization conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale... say aye."

Yang pumps her fist enthusiastically and points at Blake. "Yes! I love it when you're feisty!"

Weiss hums in thought before piling up. "Well, I suppose it could be fun."

Ruby slumps over. "None of you said aye!"

Blake smiles. "Alright then, we're in this together!"

"Let's hatch a plan!"

"Yeah!"

"I left my board game at the library!" Ruby gasps loudly, her eyes wide in panic.

Weiss places her hand to her head. "We're doomed."

Ruby runs out of the room and down the hallway. "I'll be right back!" The sound of collision is heard back in the dorm, cashing the remaining members to poke their heads out. "Oo-oof! Oh g-!" Ruby looks up and gasps. "Emerald?"

The red eyed girl looks down and grins before offering her hand. "Hi Ruby."

The remaining members step out in the hall, each of them feeling on edge around these three new people, despite them having met two of them previously.

Cinder glances up and raises an eyebrow as she smirks. "Oh? And who are these?"

Ruby is pulled to her feet with the help of Emerald and she shoots a glare towards Cinder, warning her not to pull any stunts. "These are my teammates! Yang, Weiss, and Blake!"

Yang steps forward and puts a hand on Ruby's shoulder getting her attention. "Who are these people Rubes?"

Ruby grins and points to each person in turn. "Emerald. Mercury. And Cinder. They are my family! They are attending…" Ruby looks over their uniforms really fast. "Haven Academy and they are here for the Vytal Festival."

Yang raises an eyebrow. "But visiting students dorms are in another building."

Emerald steps forward and messes up Ruby's hair while wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Yeah, we heard our little rose got in two years early! We just had to come and see her!"

Cinder looks towards the remaining members of RWBY and smiles. "You don't mind if we borrow her for a few hours? It's been so long since we've seen our little gem."

Ruby suppresses a shiver at the name, her hands itching to stab Cinder for calling her that, something she can't obviously do at this point in time. A forced smile crosses Ruby's face while her eyes glare up at Cinder.

Yang shrugs. "Sure. I don't see why not. Just as long as Ruby is back here at a reasonable time. We still have classes tomorrow after all."

Cinder nods. "But of course. Emerald?"

Everyone looks to the mint haired girl who pulls out two handles and hands them to Ruby. Immediately the younger girl's eyes widen and she accepts the handles. "No way! You found them?!"

Cinder only smirks and turns heel before marching off. "But of course little Rose."

The four walk away, Ruby fawning over whatever she was given. When they turn the corner, the remaining members of RWBY release the breath that they had been holding. Seems like their leader is friends with some very intimidating people…

Ruby hums softly as she finishes tying her boots and straightens up, a simply black hoodie and jeans are thrown on as she looks over her teammates. Hopefully they won't cause too much trouble today.

Blake approaching her bunk as she tightens her wraps. "thought that class would never end."

Ruby nods slowly, as if agreeing, despite her thinking classes went by too fast. "Alright, guys, today's the day! The investigation begins!"Yang grins leaps off the haphazard thing she calls a bed, almost landing on Weiss below. "Yeah!"

"I'm glad to see we're taking this so seriously." Weiss comments as she fixes her rapier at her side.Yang rolls her eyes, and ignores the heiress. "Hey, we've got a plan! That's... moderately serious."Ruby looks around at her teammates. "Right! Everyone remember their roles?"

Weiss stands up as she begins speaking. "I will head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem."

Blake nods. "The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members. If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning."

The blonde grins ferally. "I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard…"

Ruby nods. "I have my own contacts here in Vale that I can get information out of them. Shouldn't be too hard."

Yang pumps her fist. "Great! We'll meet up tonight near me to go over what we found. Let's do this!"

"Yeah!" The sound of familiar monkey Faunus startles the team and all they all turn to their window, spotting the monkey Faunus hanging outside by his tail.

"Sun!" Blake shouts, surprise almost causing her to fall over.

Yang peels her head out the window. "How did you get up there?"

Sun makes a 'pshh' sound and waves his hand. "Ah, it's easy; I do it all the time."

Weiss gasps loudly, thinking the worst of the Faunus boy. "You do what?!"

"I climb trees all the time!" Sun says without reacting to Weiss' scowl, he flips into the dorm room. "So, are we finally getting back at that Torchwick guy?"Blake steps forward. "We are going to investigate the situation... as a team."

Ruby nods slowly, quickly analyzing the plan again. "Sorry, Sun. We don't want to get friends involved if we don't have to."

"Psh! That's dumb! We should always get friends involved! That's why I brought Neptune!" Sun gestures outside the window.

The girls lean out the window on top of one another cartoon-style to see the aforementioned teammate of Sun's standing outside, cool as can be."'Sup?" Is the blue haired boys response.

Ruby can only stare at the male, shock and confusion evident on her face. "How did you even get up here?"

Neptune smirks. "I have my ways. Seriously, though, can I come in? We're like, really high up right now."

After helping Neptune into the dorm room, the group are standing in a circle as Ruby lays down the new plan."Alright, Sun, you can go with Blake." Ruby pushes Neptune past Weiss, he slips her a wink. Weiss looks mildly shocked but then comes to her senses quickly. "And Neptune, you can go with Yang since she doesn't have a partner. Everyone good?"

Weiss flushes. "Actually, Ruby, why doesn't Neptune come with me?"

Ruby pushed Neptune, who is stiff as a board, up next to yang. When she is done pushing him, he rocks back and forth looking nervous. Yang put her hand on his shoulder to stop him from rocking. Ruby rolls her eyes. "But, Weiss, you can call the SDC alone, who knows what Yang could run into."

Weiss pouts before she is pulled out the door by her leader. The heiress is obviously less than amused, yet is powerless to stop Ruby from pulling her by the back out the door. She sticks her arms out fruitlessly trying to get back to Neptune. "But! But!"

Ruby hums to herself after having ditched the heiress in Vale, she is speeding towards the warehouse where she knows she'll find Roman and Cinder. After slipping inside, she ignores the White Fang that gives her odd looks as she continues towards the center.

Roman glances up and smirks widely. "Red! What brings you here?"

Ruby sighs as she leans against the table. "My team is investigating the White Fang and you. Two Faunus are going to infiltrate the meeting tonight. If all goes to plan, I want you to only reveal the paladin tonight. If it comes down to it, you can use it to fight them, but keep in mind, no fatal attacks. They are still my cover. And when they destroy the paladin, have Neo help with your escape. As soon as that is finished, rush as fast as you can to get to me, I'll need Neo to help set up a little… Play."

Roman raises an eyebrow and simply nods. "But of course red, shouldn't be an issue here."

Ruby grins and nods before turning to Cinder. "Mind if I borrow Emerald later? I need someone to stab me, even if it is with my own swords."

Cinder raises an eyebrow, quickly catching onto Ruby's train of thought. "Of course."

Ruby nods and walks away, "Don't be late Roman. I'll be at the warehouse we cleared last week. And if all goes well, Ozpin will lower his guard further, making things so much easier for us." With that, Ruby disappears into the darkness.

Ruby sits in the warehouse and watches the time before she hands her dual swords over to Emerald.

Her scroll begins ringing and she quickly picks it up. "Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back-"

"HELLPPPPPPP!" Sun's loud voice interrupts. "Big robot! And it's big! Really big! That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something!"

Yang's voice rings out from the speaker. "Where are you guys?"

"HURRYYYY!!!" Sun shouts, obviously panicking.

"We see you Sun! On our way!" Yang shouts and she's quickly followed by the reve of a motorcycle.

Weiss huffs. "Not hard to find you guys, I'm farther down the highway. Where are you Ruby?!"

Ruby picks up her scroll. "On my way! Just had to check one last- hurg." Emerald rams the sword through Ruby's stomach causing the red head to wail out in pain.

"Ruby!" Multiple voices shout out from the scroll.

Emerald swings the swords , making sure to connect with Crescent Rose rather than hurting her superior again.

"Go! Don't worry about me!" Ruby shouts out, grunting as though she's pushing against something.

Emerald pulls back the sword and raises an eyebrow, only for Ruby to nod. Emerald stabs Ruby again before pulling out the sword, the audible sound of blood spilling causes her teammates to shout at her in worry before Emerald steps on her scroll, crushing in underfoot, being careful to leave the tracker intact.

Yang watches as Torchwick escapes before quickly pulls up her scroll. "We need to find Ruby!" Yang taps on an app, showing a map and four red dots. Three of them are clustered together while the other is on the other side of Vale. "We need to hurry!"

The three tear off down the street, uncaring of anything else but their injured leader.

As the remaining members of RWBY race towards Ruby's position, Neo enters the warehouse and quickly accepts the swords from Emerald who takes off. Neo's quickly changes her appearance to match that of the Reaper's and she stands over Ruby, as if preparing to stab her. The younger is unconscious but still breathing.

Neo glances around, noticing the slashes of blood, she is mildly impressed in how realistic the scene looks. Before she can continue to admire, the warehouse doors burst open and a shot is fired towards her. Neo easily dodges as she jumps away from the injured Rose.

Blake freezes as she spots the woman who seemingly snarls before vanishing into thin air. Yang's shout draws the Faunus from her fear, focusing her attention to her injured leader who rests in a pool of her own blood.

Weiss pulls out her scroll, calling for an ambulance as the other two focus on stopping the blood flow.


	20. Chapter Seventeen

Blake paces back and forth in Ruby's hospital room, Weiss at her side while Yang sits on the couch. "It was her."

This grabs Weiss and Yang's attention at Blake's words but Yang is the first to speak up. "Who?"

Blake rubs her forehead. "At the docks when I saw Torchwick and the White Fang. There was that other human, the one that screamed danger. She was the one who hurt Ruby."

Yang clenches her fists while Weiss just hangs her head. "We are in over our heads right now." Weiss looks both of her teammates in the eye. "No more stupid stunts unless we all go out as a team. No splitting up."

Both nod solemnly as they watch over their fallen teammate, knowing full well, she could have died.

Ozpin sits high in his office at top Beacon tower as he looks over the reports given by team RWBY. _"While being chased by an Atlesian Paladin, RWBY and two members of SSSN heard the sounds of Ruby Rose being attacked before everything went quiet. Upon arriving at the scene, they found a hooded woman about to deliver the final blow to Ruby Rose only to quickly run off. The entire scene is constant with a major fight and Ruby Rose was lucky to be found when she was, otherwise she would have bled out."_

Glynda sighs from her own seat. "There's nothing! I've combed through every thing I could get my hands on and we aren't closer to figuring out where Ruby went after Summer's death and why the Red Reaper tried killing her."

Ozpin simply nods his head. "Yes. While that is true, we have more pressing matters." Glynda simply raises an eyebrow, waiting for the wizard to go on. "Qrow will be return soon and he'll meet up with Tai before both arrive at Beacon. It's only a mater of time before they meet the leader of RWBY."

Glynda nods slowly. "That will be sure to cause some fallout between the two of them and you no doubt. Let's hope you can have a good enough reason for not sharing Ruby's well being with them."

Ozpin only nods his agreement, quickly growing lost in his thoughts.

A steady beep is the first Ruby hears, it's also the first thing begins to grind on her nerves. She's unsure how long she's been out, but it can't have been too long, despite the obvious blood loss, she wasn't stabbed in any vital locations, meaning her wounds were more or less superficial to her compared to others she has received.

Silver eyes blink open only to shut after the bright lights of the hospital attacks her eyes. She squints to grow used to the light as she tries to regain feeling in her limbs. Numerous uncomfortable pins and needles push through her as Ruby strains to sit up, gasping in discomfort each time they flare up as she moves.

By the time she's upright as she wanted to be, her limbs no longer feel as heavy as they did before. Ruby glances over herself, finding herself to be in a god awful hospital gown with multiple bandages covering her chest and abdomen. A few are on her arms and when she removes them, she is happy to see the wounds are nothing but thin pink lines. She moves into her midsection, peeling back the bandage and scrunching her nose at the smell of antiseptic that was placed on the now closed wounds. The areas where she was stabbed healed over quite well, all that remains is a scab that should fall off either that day or the next.

With a nod, satisfied that her aura is working as best as it can, she declines against the bed and begins the waiting game to see if her team will come visit her once classes are dismissed.

Ruby isn't sure how long she waited, or when she dozed off, but the sound of the door opening brings her out of her slumber, causing her to raise her head and make eye contact with amber eyes belonging to her partner.

Blake gasps and races forward, clutching onto the younger girl tightly. "Ruby! How are you? Are you okay?"

Ruby only smiles and pats the girls back before Blake pulls away. "I'm fine. Just a little sore." Ruby looks towards the closed door. "No Weiss or Yang."

Blake shakes her head. "They are heading down to the cafeteria to get food for all of us, incase you were awake."

Ruby nods before humming softly before looking towards Blake. "Is everything alright?"

Blake rubs her arm and slowly shakes her head. "Ruby. Do you... Do you remember that night we found you after hurting that man out of the alley?"

Ruby nods slightly. "The man who killed my friend. Of course."

Blake clenches her eyes and brings her hand up to her bow and slowly pulls it away, to reveal a pair of cat Faunus ears underneath. "I... I'm a Faunus."

Ruby simply raises an eyebrow, having figured out the girl's secret when she connected the last name. "And? Took you long enough. Like if you wanted to hide your heritage, maybe change your last name." Ruby opens her arms for a hug, smirking slightly.

Blake looks taken back before accepting the hug, sinking into the warmth of a friend. "Thank you. Partner."

Ruby can't help but feel a twinge if guilt, knowing that she is hiding far larger secrets than what Blake could ever hope to truly grasp.

 _"I attend a school where the headmaster indirectly killed my birth mother, he's out to kill my adoptive mother, and doesn't even know of the ticking time bomb that lives within his own school."_

"No problem Blake. I'm just happy you guys found me in time. I wasn't quite ready to die yet." The two laugh and begin to chat, waiting for the rest of the team to arrive with their food.

Ruby can't help but feel that guilt grow in her chest as she listens to Blake become more friendly with her. _"If only they knew..."_


	21. Chapter Eighteen

"I'll do it." Mercury's voice startles Ruby out of her thoughts, causing her to look around in confusion.

Glynda makes a soft humming sound. "Mercury, is it? Very well, let's find you an opponent."

Ruby inwardly sighs. Of course the idiot would fight her.

Pyrrha looks confused. "Me?"

Glynda shakes her head. "I'm afraid Miss Nikos has just finished the match. I recommend you choose another partner."

Pyrrha's eyes widen before she speaks. "No, it's fine! I'd be happy to oblige."

Ruby raises an eyebrow. Arrogant or humble. Something she can't quite figure out what the red headed fighter is.

Mercury struts into the arena, visibly sizing up Pyrrha. Mercury makes the first attack, only to be knocked down. Recovering quickly, he deflects an attack and begins trading blows with Pyrrha until she knocks him back with her shield.Ruby Rose turns toward Emerald sitting behind her. "What is that idiot doing?" Emerald simply shrugs, looking just as confused.Mercury unleashes a series of powerful strikes. Pyrrha allows his kick to slam against her forearm before Mercury manages to disarm, a kick impaling her blade into the ground. Pyrrha uses her Semblance to redirect the direction of Mercury's next kick. As she charges him with her shield, he shoots off of it and turns his back to her. Pyrrha tries to rush him again.Mercury straightens up and dusts himself off. "I forfeit."

Pyrrha almost stumbles as she stops beside him."You... don't even want to try?"

Mercury shrugs, a knowing look in his eye that only Ruby and Emerald spot. "What's the point? You're a world-renowned fighter. We're obviously leagues apart."

Glynda hums in disapproval. "In that case... Pyrrha Nikos is the victor of the match... again."

Emerald smirks. Mercury sneers smugly. Pyrrha has a annoyed and disappointed look on her face, and places her left hand on her hip. The Aura displays for Pyrrha and Mercury are shown as Mercury's is changed from green to red indicating his loss.Glynda shakes her head. "Next time, you may want to think a little harder before choosing an opponent."

Mercury mockingly salutes the older woman. "I'll be sure to do that."

An alarm sounds which jolts Blake who has nodded off."That is all for today. And remember, the dance is this weekend. But you all have your first mission on Monday. I will not accept any excuses."

As everyone leaves, Mercury stops beside Emerald. Sarcasm seems to bleed from the males voice. "Learning is so much fun."

Blake crosses her arms as she regards her teammates. Ruby tilts her head, almost innocently. "We want you to go to the dance."

The cat Faunus narrows her eyes. "That's ridiculous."

The blonde brute growls in frustration. "Blake, we're worried about you. This investigation is starting to mess with your head."

Weiss ticks off her fingers. "You can't sleep, you hardly eat, and to be honest, your grades have been suffering."

Blake snarls and seems to curl further into herself. "You think I care about grades?" She shrugs and then gestures out the window. "People's lives are at stake!"

Yang puts her hand on Blake's, lowering it. "We know, and we're all still trying to figure out what Torchwick is up to."

Ruby nods. "Thanks to you and Sun, we know they're operating somewhere outside of southeast Vale."

"And, the Schnee company records singled out Vale as the primary target for Dust robberies over the last few months." The heiress piped up.

The blonde nods. "Don't forget about their missing military tech too."

Blake snarls and withdraws her hand from Yang's. "But there's still unanswered questions!"

"Blake, you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open!"

Yang nods as she looks away from her leader to the Faunus. "All we're asking is that you take it easy for one day."

Weiss nods. "It will be fun! Yang and I will make sure of it."

"Yeah! We're planning the whole event!" Yang pumps her fists which causes the bed to bounce Blake.Blake raises an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Team CFVY's away mission lasted longer than expected." The heiress pipes in.

"So, Weiss and I were asked to pick up where they left off. And now we can make sure you have the perfect night." Yang slings her arm over the heiress shoulders.

Weiss looks visibly disgusted as she removes Yang's arm from her. "And once it's all over, we'll return for our search, rested and ready."

Ruby nods enthusiastically. "So what do ya think?"

Blake glares. "think this is a colossal waste of time." Blake walks away from the group and opens the dorm door. "I'll be in the library." With those final words, she slams the door shut behind her.

Ruby opens the door and slinks outside to follow her partner, ignoring Jaune's rather odd… Guitar? Either way, she has more pressing matters to attend to.

Ruby leans against the bookshelf, the book she spied Blake searching for in hand.

The cat Faunus rounds the corner and eyes the book in her leaders hands. "Were you spying on me?"

Ruby simply raises an eyebrow. "Me? Staring? Come now Blake. Don't be ridiculous."

Blake narrows her eyes. "Then can I have that?"

Ruby tilts her head. "Oh? This?" Ruby hums softly before tapping her cheek as if in thought. "No." With that, Ruby places the book back and grabs her partner's wrist, leading her out of the library.

Ruby enters an empty room, dragging the cat Faunus behind her.

Blake rubs her wrist and grumbles softly. "What did you bring me here for?"

Ruby continues into the classroom. "My partner is working herself to the bone. And I'm afraid she'll grow sick if this continues."

Blake huffs and follows the girl in. "You don't understand. I need to do this."

Ruby holds up a hand. "Oh shut up! This is ridiculous." Ruby reaches into her pocket and pulls out a white journal with a red rose decal on the front. One Blake recognizes as her leaders symbol.

"This is a late family members journal." Ruby closes her eyes. "She was searching for something and she learned the truth about something that no one should know. But she dug too deep and she was murdered Blake." Ruby opens her eyes, the grey looking like cold steel. "She dug too far and with little sleep and food, she was easily tracked and killed." Ruby stares at Blake. "Torchwick could walk through that door and you could do nothing! You would be killed, same as her!"

Ruby puts the journal back into her pocket and walks up to the Faunus, despite her height, she pulls the girl into a hug. "I know you don't want to stop. Just… Get some rest. Wait until after the dance and we can look together. Okay, partner?"

Blake looks down at the smaller girl, stunned before she finds her arms encircling the smaller of the two. "I… Okay."

Ruby smiles and pulls away. "Save me a dance." Before Blake can reply, all that remains are rose petals in her place.


	22. Chapter Ninteen

Ruby hums as she watches over the dance. "Everyone has partners."

Cinder's voice crackles through her ear. "How long do I have?"

Mercury slides up next to Ruby, a similar ear piece in his ear. "You should probably be home by midnight. Just to be safe."

Cinder is heard to him her agreeance. "I'll keep an eye on the clock."

The sound of two guards being knocked out rings through. Emerald taps Mercury's arm. "A party guest is leaving?"

"Who?"

Ruby narrows her eyes. "Ironwood."

Cinder hums. "Plan B it is."

Ruby nods and slips out into a balcony before disappearing into a wave of rose petals that fly across campus and towards the CCT.

"Should we intervene?"

"No. We're done here.

Ruby continues forward but her eyes spot something else. "Keep up appearances. I've got a tail."

Ruby enters the CCT and takes the elevator, noting how the figure opts for the stairs. Ruby stops at the top floor and steps out, Crescent Rose deployed. "Hello?" She stumbles due to her high-heeled shoes. "Is anyone there? Hello?"

Cinder steps out from behind the desk, noting the amber eyes that follow her movements from the darkened stair case.

Ruby tilts her head. "Excuse me? You know, it's not a masquerade party, so why don't you take off that-!"

Cinder produces a container of ice Dust and sends shards of ice flying at Ruby. Ruby dodged and watches as a bullet sails towards Cinder. The woman narrows her eyes and turns tail before fleeing just as the elevator dings again. And none other than Ironwood steps out.

An alert sound plays, signifying that the elevator has arrived.

"Come in." Ozpin's voice rings out.

Ruby and Blake step out and into the room.Ruby smiles. "Sorry it took so long. Someone accidentally hit all the buttons on the elevator on the way up here." She pausing before quickly explaining herself. "It wasn't me."

Ozpin chuckles, visibly amused. "Thank you for coming, Ruby. How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess. I'd feel better if my bad-guy-catching record wasn't O-for-three."

Everyone stares silently.Ruby shifts slightly. "Okay, so that's the tone we're going for, got it."

Ironwood steps forward. "Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a Huntress is all about. You recognized a threat. You took action. And you did the very best you could."

Ruby visibly brightens. "Thank you, sir."

Ozpin clears his throat. "Now, the general here has already informed us of the events that... transpired last night, but now that you've rested, we were wondering if you had anything to add."

Glynda cuts in. "Was anyone else with her? Did she look familiar to you at all?"

Ruby closes her eyes and looks stressed as she tries to think. "I... I don't know. She was wearing a mask, and she never said anything to me. But I know she fought with glass. I don't think that was her Semblance, though. Her clothing lit up whenever she attacked."

Glynda hums. "Save for the glass, that sounds like the woman I fought the night we met Ruby."

Ironwood nods. "Embedding Dust into clothing is an age-old technique. It could have been anyone."

Ruby raises an eyebrow. "Wait. You think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang?"

Ozpin nods slowly. "It's possible. But we still lack the required evidence to link the two together." Ozpin looks to Blake. "And you Miss Belladonna. Did you hear anything Miss Rose didn't?"

Blake nods slowly. "Actually, I... I think I remember her saying something about a hideout, or something, in the southeast. Just outside the Kingdom."

Ozpin nods slowly. "Interesting. Thank you for your cooperation, Ruby and Blake.. Why don't you go and spend some time with your team? You have a big day ahead of you."

Ironwood turns to Ozpin. "That was-"

Ozpin holds up a hand. "Summer's daughter? Yes. We don't know what she has been up to for the past few years." Ozpin turns to Glynda. "Please contact Taiyang and Qrow. I have a feeling that sending team RWBY on a Search and Destroy Mission in Mount Glenn would be our best option thus far."

Glynda raises an eyebrow. "Mount Glenn is usually for second years and Taiyang along with Qrow. Is this smart?"

Ozpin sighs. "We shall find out. Just contact them. The sooner the better."

Ruby frowns as she thinks over the information Blake have the headmaster. "The southeast?"

Blake looks down at her leader. "Yeah. I heard about it at the White Fang meeting Sun and I went to."

Ruby nods slowly, not voicing her thoughts out loud. Cinder is hiding something… I don't like this.

Yang bounces on her feet as she watches the skies. She had just received a text from her father, informing her that her father and uncle were gonna join her team on their first mission. Her partner, Weiss stands next to the excitable blonde while the ladybug pair are currently in the library. Searching and learning about the area their first mission will take place.

After what feels like hours of waiting, a bulkhead touches down and out step her two favorite people. She tackles the two in a hug and grins. "Hi dad! Uncle Qrow!"

Taiyang grins and pulls his daughter into an even tighter hug, causing her to squeak out. "Hi my sunny dragon."

A soft cough startles the trio and they glance over at the heiress. Yang grins and steps away. "Dad. Uncle. Meet my partner Weiss. The rest of my teammates are probably with Ozpin right now."

Taiyang simply grins. "Well lets go then!"

Yang smirks and leads the group towards Beacon, excited for her family to meet the rest of her team.

Ruby wasn't sure what she expected to happen when she met her teammates family for the first time. Maybe a few greetings, small talk, the works.

The last thing she expected was for a blonde male to sob into her shoulder and a red eyed man with a massive sword to try and attack Ozpin. Definitely one of the last things she expected.


	23. Chapter Twenty

Five Minutes ago Yang texted Ruby, telling her they just entered the elevator. Five minutes! How long does it take for an elevator to arrive!

The ding of the elevator finally startled her out of her thoughts and she watches as Yang steps out, hands held up in surrender. "Sorry. Someone hit all the buttons on the elevator." The younger blonde pauses. "And it wasn't me."

Ruby slightly turns her head towards Blake, after hearing the other girl groan loudly and shake her head.

Yang simply grins.

Ruby rolls her eyes. "Well take a seat you dip-" Blake slams a hand over the youngest mouth, causing Ruby to pout.

"Language."

Ruby licks the older girl's hand, causing the Faunus to recoil in disgust. "English."

Yang simply grins. "Dad. Uncle Qrow. Meet Blake Belladonna and her partner and our team leader, Ruby Rose." Yang does jazz hands while Ruby just looks over the two men in boredom. Weiss standing at their side looking irritated.

Ruby opens her mouth and suddenly it feels as those a freight train has hit her, causing her to black out for a few seconds before coming back to feeling arms encircling her. The culprit being the tall blonde male Ruby thought to be Yang's father.

Where as the red eyed man has pulled out a sword and is ferioisly attempting to attack Ozpin. Ruby feels her eye twitch in irritation. She grabs Yang's father by the nape, causing him to cry out in shock and release the smaller red head. She pushes him into an empty chair with a glare before turning to the red eyed man.

Said man freezes under the glare of the younger and puts away his weapon before sitting next to Yang's father.

Ruby gives a self satisfied hum before smacking the two over the head. "Surrounded by idiots. What the hell was that?" Ruby pinches her nose. "Actually I don't want to know. I'll just have my sister light your-"

Yang leaps forward and speaks over Ruby. "Butts!"

Ruby continues without pause. "- on fire." She sighs heavily before looking to Ozpin. "Our mission?"

The old wizard looks between Ruby and the two older males before nodding slowly. "There are reports of Grimm activity in the southeast, outside the kingdom. Since usually this mission is reserved for second years, I find it more appropriate if a team went with huntsmen they know to a degree." Ozpin nods over to the older males. "Taiyang, Yang's father and her uncle Qrow will join you four on a search and destroy hunt."

Ruby nods. "Understood. When do we leave?"

Ozpin pulls out a folder and looks it over. "Tomorrow morning. Please be at the docks prepared and on time." Ozpin looks over the folder and nods once again. "That will be all."

Ruby nods and marched off towards the elevator, feeling the eyes of her teammates and Yangms family on her the entire way.

 _By Oum I need a drink..._

Ruby religiously avoided her team the remainder of the day. Everytime Taiyang or Qrow would approach, she'd immediately become wrapped up in a conversation with her 'siblings'. Causing the two males to grow uncomfortable and leave. Eventually night fell and the two left to find a place to sleep.

That of course didn't stop Ruby from sleeping in her subordinates dorm room for the night. But it was only a matter of time before she found herself in a crowded bullhead with her team and the two people who bothered her the most yesterday. Her hands were itching to pull out the hidden blades and stab the two, but she of course resisted. Quite well if she were to say so herself.

Upon arrival at Mount Glenn, the team was alert as they gathered their surroundings while the two huntsmen seemed at ease. Ruby glances around. "We will split up into two teams. Scouts and fighters. Weiss and Yang, take Taiyang and just wander around. If you find anything, kill it. Blake, Qrow, and I will flirt between the shadows of the place, gathering an idea of the layout and if we find Grimm, we'll lead them to you."

Before any can reject Ruby's idea, she's already disappeared into rose petals to look throughout the city for signs of life aside from the Grimm she takes down silently.

The sun slowly begins its descent and just before it disappears entirely, her eyes catch movement in the distance. She speeds forward and peeks out from a corouding building to spot White Fang guards patrolling the area. She watches as they disappear around the corner and her eyes narrow as she steps out of the shadows, only to feel the ground tremble and collapse beneath her, swallowing her in darkness.

Qrow and Blake make their way towards the others, quickly finding them by the sound of gunfire. Upon arriving, they find the three looking rather bored with a trail of disentgrating Grimm behind them.

Yang glances up and grins. "Hey. Where's Ruby?"

Blake simply shrugs. "I smelt her every now and then but it was faint and didn't last long. She's been bouncing all over the place all day."

A loud rumble shakes the ground, causing lose cement to fall from nearby structures. The shaking stops and the group shares a look before rushing towards the source. In front of them is a massive hole in the ground, and directly in front of them, a red container, the team knows to house Ruby's weapon.

Yang glances down the hole. "She's down there. We've got to find her!"

Qrow puts a hand on his niece's shoulder, calming her down. "There are train tunnels under Mount Glenn. I found a service hatch earlier, that'll be safer than jumping down."

Yang nods and all make their way through the city as quickly as possible, rushing to find their missing teammate and leader.

Ruby slowly comes to as she's dragged by two Faunus, one bear and another looks to be a cat. She's tossed towards a rather large object she can't quite place with her blurry vision. Slowly her head clears and she glances around, finding the large object to be a train.

The train tracks... A way to punch a hole straight into the heart of Vale, releasing Grimm inside. An idea Ruby disregarded as soon as she heard it.

"Cinder..." Ruby stands up and flicks her wrists. Two handles seem to appear in her hands and they grow into two sabers that she holds dangerously close to the throat of the closest Faunus. Her eyes widen as she sees the swords, knowing only one person wields such swords. One of her bosses...

"M-Miss Reaper! I-I didn't k-know it was you!"

Ruby snarls and presses the blades against the Faunus neck. "You have a way to directly contact Cinder. Bring me there!"

Blake holds her teammates back as she hears approaching footsteps in front of their darkened little alley. The five watch as a bear Faunus walks past and is quickly followed by Ruby with two sabers in hand that she twirls dangerously.

As the two pass, Blake motions for the group to be quiet as they follow Ruby through the tunnels. Ruby stops in front of a screen and the Faunus presses a button. Shortly after a familiar face pops up on the screen.

"What do you... Oh." A smirk stretches across Cinder's face. "Well hello Ruby. Didn't expect you to find out about this little-" The woman paused as she waved her hand about, looking for a word. "This little project of mine."

Ruby simply snarls and twirls her swords at a faster rate. "Cinder... You've betrayed my trust. When our queen hears of this-"

Cinder cuts of the smaller girl. "If she hears about this at all Ruby Rose." The woman smirks. "It's almost sad. Summer Rose is killer by the wizards pawns. And her child, killed by the queens pawns. Rather fitting dare I say."

Ruby watches as the screen shuts off, enraging her further.That traitorous bitch! Scuffling alerts Ruby to the White Fang members raising their weapons.The remaining members stare at their team leader is shock after hearing the message.The two swords seem to glow as the fire dust activates inside them.

Ruby disappears into red petals that begin to catch on fire as she activates the dust in the swords, causing her to look as though she is racing against the fire. Ruby slides, head back as a machete blade passes a hair over her face. She recovers by rolling into a crouch and slashing at a Faunus' legs, causing them to cry out as the blade passes through their aura faster than it can keep up.Ruby leaps forward from her crouched position, impaling another on her swords as another two converge on her from the sides. The red head twists her swords in the Faunus causing them to cry out as she angles the blades differently before slashing through flesh and bone, effectively cutting the arms off and lodging the blades in two necks of the approaching Faunus.She rips the blades from their necks, grinning as she watches the blood pool around their fallen bodies.A bullet is fired her way and she dodged at the last second as raced towards another.

Rwby watches their leader becomes a whirlwind of blades and chaos, ripping through the ranks like they were nothing to her.

Qrow analyzes the girls fighting style, eyes narrowed as he picks out different styles he recognizes from the night Amber was attacked. And even more that he doesn't recognize but he understands the style as the girl in red kicks dirt into another's eyes.Strike to kill, cheat to win. Things he usually sees in criminals that has attempted to escape him in the past.

While Fang members group back together a ways away from the corpses of their dead brothers and sister in arms. Ruby stands in the middle, silver eyes gleaming with a bloodlust that shakes Blake to the core as she's seen it once before at the docks. Ruby bows, mockingly, something that startled Yang as she swears she saw a flash of brown, pink, and white.

Ruby disappears from her spot and circles the Faunus, petals cloud their vision as they try to gain a sense of where their attacker is. Fear grips their minds as instincts shout at them to run in the face of the predator stalking them. Ruby stops outside the whirlwind of red petals and grabs a burn crystal. She activates it and tosses in towards the petals and immediately, everything goes up in a blaze, burning from the outside in. The dying screams cause the huntress in training team to shy away and clutch their ears to stop the horrible sounds as the stench of iron and burnt flesh attacks their noses.

Ruby turns towards her team and watches as they activate their weapons, ready to attack this new threat. The girl simply tilts her head and grins. "Someday you'll see what Ozpin truly is. And when that day arrives, I hope you don't die the same way Summer Rose did."

The clacking of heeled boots causes Ruby to grin as she turns toward her companion is crime. Neopolitan. "Neo. If you would?"

Both bow mockingly, everything about them the same in that instance. Yang's eyes widen and she races toward and attacks Ruby, only to watch as the image shatters to reveal nothing but a few petals where she stood.

The blonde turns towards her uncle who has his eyes narrowed. "We need to report to Ozpin. Now!" The shout of the older man startles the rest of the team into action.


End file.
